Lies and Deceit
by Kabukiman
Summary: AU. Naruto, tired of being lectured on his chakra control and to be more like Sasuke, decides to take action. Time to show the world how great the Uchiha prodigy truly is. Warning: General Team 7 bashing. Cursing.First chapter's kinda lame, gets better.
1. Chapter 1

It had been another day of training for Uzumaki Naruto. "Heh! 'Training's what he calls it!" When Kakashi finally showed up, with another one of those idiotic excuses, after that it had been another one of those "teamwork-excercises" and to round it all off another lecture about the importance of chakra control. And once again Kakashi had been only looking in his direction when he did.  
He was getting sick and tired of it. In Wave Country he had witnessed Sasuke's chakra control during that tree-climbing excercise, so he knew his wasn't much better then his own. Still, the Uchiha got nothing but praise from their sensei.

He passed Ichiriku Ramen and ordered his miso ramen to go. After paying he took his cup to the Hokage monument.  
Sitting down in the lotus position with the cup in the middle of his lap he started meditating for a couple of minutes.  
Slowly he reached a certain peace of mind. He enjoyed the silence in his head for a couple of minutes, breathing in the steam of his ramen. Then he startled analyzing his problem, picking it apart piece by piece.  
He was tired of the lectures on chakra control and never hearing Kakashi complain about anyone else.  
He was tired being told to look up at Sasuke and to try and be more like that stiffheaded and spoiled brat of an Uchiha.  
The only solution to the problem he saw was to get better then him.  
Not just a little better, a lot. He would have to beat him with a mile before anyone would recognize him for it.

But who could teach him ... Not Kakashi for sure, he didn't want him to know about this training.  
Maybe Iruka would know a thing or two. He remember his former teacher to have given a few lessons about it.  
Unfortunately he had dozed of during those hours. "I'll make sure not to do that this time"  
With a renewed spirit he opened his eyes and started eating his barely warm ramen.

Iruka had just finished teaching class when Naruto ran into him at the entrance of the Ninja Academy.  
He greeted his former student with a smile.  
"Ano-sa, ano-sa, Iruka-sensei, I need a favor"  
"Hello Naruto, what can I do for you"  
"You remember those lessons about chakra-control"  
"Hai. What about it"  
"Well erhm ... I decided to start taking that seriously but ...", the blond genin scratched the back of his head,  
"I forgot the technique you tought us to practice it"  
The elder chuunin laughed a little as Naruto finished his sentence.  
"Hehehe, guess I should have woke you before I started about an actual technique to practice it. It's alright, I'll show you"  
Iruka jumped up and picked a leaf of the nearest tree and placed it on his forehead.  
"The trick is to release just enough chakra from your forehead to make the leaf float above it.  
Not enough and it won't move or fall back on your head, too much and it will shoot of your head and you won't be able to control it"  
As Iruka finished his explenation he concentrated and made the leaf float a few inches above his head.

"Now you try it." He picked the leaf out of the air and handed it to Naruto.  
Naruto pushed his head protector a little more up his head and placed the leaf on his forehead.  
He concentrated his chakra to his forehead and when he released it the leaf shot up like a rocket, after about a yard the wind picked it up. Iruka snatched it and handed it back to Naruto.  
"Hehe, just as I thought. You obviously use way to much chakra. That's okay, just keep practicing. I'm sorry, but I've got some tests to correct. Good luck on the training Naruto"  
"He wait up!  
The chuunin looked back at Naruto.  
"What is it"  
"How long does it normally take to master this technique"  
"Oh, it shouldn't take you longer then a few days, a week tops as it's a basic technique"  
"Ok, thanks Iruka-sensei!"

Naruto had been training his chakra control for 3 days now.  
Mostly in his apartment as there wasn't any wind there and he could quickly grab the leaf as it flew out of his control.  
He had improved greatly and could finally hover the leaf above his head, but he still found himself lacking a great deal of control. The leaf now hovered about 15 inches from his head, which was fine inside his room, but outside the wind would still get a hold of it.  
Another 2 days later he had finally mastered the technique and he found his chakra control had clearly improved.  
His other techniques seemed to have become less taxing and he could make more shadow clones with the same amount of chakra.

An idea popped in his head as he thought about this.  
"Kage Bunshin no jutsu"  
A clone appeared, holding his own leaf in his hands.  
Both Naruto's pulled their head back and placed the leaf on their foreheads. The leaves once again flew high above their heads, but he managed to keep them steady none the less.  
"Wow, this is more difficult then I imagined. ... But it's a good training non the less"  
A few hours later Naruto managed to regain some more control. Exhausted, but satisfied he fell down on the bed and decided to use this excercise on a daily basis.

Four days later seven more clones had joined in on his little excercise.  
He was feeling more confident in his newfound control. It had already paid itself off.  
There was nothing like an army of clones to help out harvesting crops or babysit a small bunch of kids.  
And although the jounin hadn't said anything, he was sure Kakashi had noticed something.  
He found it time to move on. He had already tried combining the exercise with the tree-climbing, but stopped trying since he kept hitting his head on the ground.  
He needed something new. Something ... bigger.  
Iruka was out of town this week as he had gotten a mission to Hidden Gras Village.  
He decided to head for the town library.

He never imagined the library to be so huge.  
Racks as high as the ceiling were stacked with scrolls.  
The problem wasn't finding an interesting jutsu to learn, there must have been thousands to chose from.  
The problem was that he didn't know which one would serve his purpose. He had tried talking to the cleric, only to got turned the cold shoulder.  
"What the hell is it with these people that they hate me so much! I bet they wouldn't act like this to their precious Uchih..." An idea struck his mind. He looked for a quite place near the entrance and created a clone. The clone immediatly performed a henge and before Naruto now stood the Uchiha he had grown to despise so much.

"Oi dobe. You got the scroll"  
"Don't call me that, you bastard"  
"So you got the scroll"  
"Gomen, couldn't find it"  
The clone gave a look of annoyance and walked towards the cleric who had noticed the conversation of the two.  
Naruto soon followed.  
As the clone Sasuke reached the cleric he asked him for a technique that would improve their chakra control.

"I've got just the technique for you Uchiha-san. However, it might be a bit to much for your teammate here"  
"I asked you for your advice in a technique, not to insult my teammate"  
"Offcourse, gomen sir. You might find the waterwalking jutsu appropriate. You can find it in the water department, first rack on your right, third shelf"  
"Arigato."

Naruto and his clone walked over to the scroll and studied it for a few minutes.  
"This should be easy, plus the worst thing that could happen is to get some wet clothes"  
After placing the scroll back and leaving the library Naruto dispelled his clone and headed for the river"  
"Hehehe Uchiha, you've finally proved some use."

Naruto had followed the river for a good end until he finally found a spot where the water was calmer and shallow enough to his liking. He stood there silently for a moment, studying the gentle flow of the liquid surface. Then he calmly rolled up his pants until he had uncovered his knees. His control might have improved over the last week, but he wasn't foolish enough to think he would succeed on the first try. It had taken him a week to gain enough control to walk up a tree, and this wasn't simply sticking to a surface, this was creating a stable surface to walk on.  
"Well, at least this time, the chance of hitting my head to the ground will be minimal."

With that thought he began channeling his chakra to his feet.  
He hovered one foot over the water and immediately violent wrinckles started disturbing the calm surface.  
"Wow, that can't be good! Hmm, must be overdoing it again"  
He lessened the amount of chakra and instantly the water stopped its wild flow.  
Putting his foot down on it, he broke the still surface and felt his foot hitting the riverbed.  
"This might be trickier then I thought..."

Several hours had gone by and Naruto was steadily finding his way towards the surface of the water.  
Since the water was shallow enough to stand in, he figured he could work his way up so he wouldn't have to get in and out of the water all the time. He was meditating, forgetting about the outside world, trying to find peace with himself, letting go of all conflict, feeling the water at his legs, flowing through his toes, he tried to become one with it. And slowly he managed to slightly control his altitude. "Time does not matter, only with patience will I achieve my goal." Repeating this thought for an indeterminable time he finally reached the surface. The water now carried him like the earth had before. Slowly he opened one eye, as if when he would look he would ruin the magic. When he saw his feet were no longer underwater he couldn't but jump and shout over his victory.  
Upon landing he immediately fell through the water and fell ungracefully on his ass.  
His face still held a grin to them tough, if he could do it once, he could do it again, right?

Fifteen minutes later he had reached the flowing surface once again. This time deciding to hold himself still for a couple of minutes until he had calibrated his chakra some more. Then he slowly tried lifting his foot, seeing if he had to readjust his chakra flow if he did. Luckily he didn't have to. Grateful and relieved he started walking around slowly. It was not long before he felt confident in his newfound skill and started playing around with it. He had spend about fifteen minutes skating across the river. When his stomach began to growl he decided to head for Ichiraku, he was tempted to run to the center of the village across the water, but decided not since he wanted to keep his extra trainings secret.

As he reached the village he could not help but notice the cold stares.  
'_You always have hated me, you have always detested me, but now at least I know why you do. I know you all have suffered more then I can image. That what I felt when I thought Sasuke had died on the bridge could not come close to what some of you have had to endure. But why can't you understand that I am not him_'  
The thoughts went throug his head as he ran further down the village.  
He felt the cold stares following him everywhere he turned, their icy gazes peering into his back, hate burning in their eyes. He had learned to cope with them, but he still wished that for just once he could walk around without all the hate pointed towards him.

He rounded the last corner for the Ichiraku stand. Immediately he was pushed away by a horde of crazy fangirls, screaming the name of his rival.  
His muscles tensed when he heard the name. He turned his head towards the goal of the wild horde just in time to see his teammate run off.  
"Fuck you Uchiha, you fucking spoiled bloodline brat! Soon I will surpass you, and when that day comes we'll see how much they love their dear Uchiha." He clenched his fist hard enough for his muscles to shake his arm and let out a growl.  
He tried shaking it of as he continued to one of the few places in the village where his company was welcomed.

"Oi Naruto! Where were you man, I was expecting you 3 hours ago"  
"Sorry Ichira-san, I was training by the river. Guess I got a little carried away"  
"Hehehe, when don't you get carried away? Anyway, what can I get ya"  
"Well I do feel like chicken tonight"  
"One chicken ramen coming right up." The old man smiled and turned to the pot of boiling water.  
"Hey Ichi, can I ask you something odd"  
"Haven't heard much else from you kid. What's on your mind"  
"Well, it's kinda hard to find the right words ... It's ...", the blonde paused for a long time.  
"Kid, why don't you just mindlessly blurt it out like you seem to do everything else"  
"Hey!" Ichira just grined at the boy and give him a wink. He put the bowl of ramen on the counter and leaned a little closer.  
"Look, Naruto. You've been a customer longer then I can remember and I doubt that your question would stop me from welcoming you here. So if you've got something on your mind just speak up and I'll see what I can do for you"  
The blond smiled when he heard those words. He stared into his ramen bowl for a few seconds, pondering over his old friend's words.

"... Promise?", Naruto looked Ichira deeply in his eyes and saw nothing but honesty when the man answered "On the face of the Fourth", holding his hand to his chest and pointing towards the Hokage monument.  
The young genin smiled again, then he took in a deep breath of air to built up his courage.  
"Do you know why the people of the village hate me"  
Ichira sighed and looked down. His face showed shame and disappointment.  
"Hai ... but unless you want my head chooped of and put on a pike I can't tell you why"  
Naruto however didn't look sad or disappointed. He knew why, ever since he graduated from the academy.  
He remembered that day like it was yesterday, as it was one of the happiest of his life.  
Finally he had figured out where all that hate came from, and those whiskers. It also had been the first time that someone had stood up and vouched for him. Iruka had saved his life in more ways then one.  
"Thanks", he said, then turning his head back to his ramen, indicating he didn't want to discuss it any further.

After finishing his meal he had returned to his house as it was getting late.  
He had been training so he wanted to get some rest. On the way he he almost ran into his ravenhaired teammate.  
But as the two's eyes met however a multitude of girls's screams filled the air.  
Naruto witnessed his rival's appearance suddenly exchanged for a log of wood right before being jumped by 6 girls.  
As he looked at the faces of the adults who were nearby the event he saw nothing but smiles on their faces.  
Smiles that rapidly turned to sour disgust as they saw him standing there.  
Angry he took to the rooftops to escape their stares.  
"No matter what I do or how good I become, they'll never recognize me for what I am. I'll be never given the instant respect that they grant their precious Uchiha." He spat out the last 2 words.

When he arrived at his apartment he was to angry and pumped up from jumping houses and thinking about his teammate.  
Normally he would calm his temper by meditating on the ceiling, today however he just didn't feel like it.  
So he summoned up a kage bunshin and made it perform a henge, making it look like Sasuke.  
"You think you're so big. Everybody thinks you're so fucking great! And no matter what I do that view will probably never change. You'll always be their Uchiha prodigy and I'll never be anything but a fucking demon in their eyes"  
He just stared at the clone then in an instant Naruto had plunged his fist in the clone's face.  
When the smoke cleared however, it was not the orange clad, golden haired genin who stood there.  
It was his darker, onyx eyed teammate that was standing in his room.  
"So be it. They like their Uchiha so much, I'll give them all the Uchiha they want!"

Naruto had awoken early that day. There would be a lot to do and little time to do it.  
After finishing his breakfast he headed for the library and checked out a book on fire jutsus.  
He also took a book about the most prominent clans in Konoha. After that he headed towards the Uchiha mansion and spyed on his teammate for a few hours.  
He had changed his appearance to one of the girls that jumped him the other day and hid somewhere outof sight.  
Figuring Sasuke would discard him as more of an annoyance then a threat, should he spot him.

Naruto was taking notes on the Uchiha's movements, analyzing his teammate as he was practicing against the dummies in the courtyard. After an hour he began seeing through the motions and started to see some logic behind his movements.  
But then it seemed that the show was over as Sasuke went back indoors.  
He looked at his watch and noticed he had to leave as training would start start soon anyway, he remarked to himself, remembering his sensei's habit of unpunctionality.  
The man was even late when they received missions for god's sake.  
Naruto cursed him for it then more then usual, as they had to make up for it by working harder and/or longer as the result of the hours of wasted time.

"Ah well, at least nobody will ever trick me into not eating breakfast again"  
He came out of his hidingplace and started reading up on some of the fire jutsus.  
As he flipped through the pages he noticed that the techniques depended little on precise chakra control.  
He cursed himself that he had never started learning them sooner. They seemed rather basic and a lot of them weren't nearly as complicated as he had thought them to be.  
Before arriving at the bridge he put the book back in his backpack.  
Sakura and Sasuke had already arrived at the bridge and were standing on their usual positions.  
For Sakura that position being in a five yard radius near Sasuke, desperately trying to make some way of conversation.

Naruto casually greeted them and took a seat on the railing.  
He plugged in his left earphone and put on some music. Over the last few weeks Naruto had grown extremely quite during these waiting periods compared to his usual loud self.  
Both his teammates found themselves happy with this change of behavior. Especially Sakura was pleased with this change of events as she was tired of being asked out by the loud blonde. Today however she was not spared of questions.  
Naruto had been observing Sakura's futile attempts of asking Sasuke out and then suddenly broke his silence.  
"Sakura, can I ask you something?"  
The pink haired kunoichi was a little surprised by the calmness of his words.  
"Nani, Naruto"  
"Why do you even keep trying? You know he's never gonna go out with you. Looking at the way he runs away from girls I wouldn't be surprised if he would rather date me"  
This earned him a death glare from both his teammates.  
"DON'TALK LIKE THAT ABOUT SASUKE"  
"I wasn't even finished yet," Naruto had raised his voice to break of Sakura. "Why do you even like him? Can you tell me that? Your entire life he hasn't said a single friendly word to you. Or to anybody as far as I can remember. Now you may answer"  
"JUST SHUT UP NARUTO! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING"  
"Well, then that's probably why I was asking. However you don't seemed to have an answer either."

Sakura fumed anger as she was dumbstruck to answer. Naruto just stared in her eyes, waiting for a reply that would never come. Sakura simply turned her back towards her teammate and walked back towards the object of her affection. Naruto now plugged his other earphone is his head, grinned and took up a lotus position again the bridge railing.  
They all waited in silence for their sensei.

Training had proven to be somewhat more of a challenge as Naruto had tried to keep observing Sasuke. Even harder was trying to follow him home. Every street corner he crossed he had used another henge. The last few streets Sasuke had started to turn his head every now and then. So he decided that he had seen enough for the day being. He had his own personal training left to do anyway and he could use all the time he had.

He headed for the river and started jogging over it's surface, looking for a quite spot to practice the new jutsus he'd acquired. After about 20 minutes he had found a suitable spot, about a mile behind the training areas. There was a spot where the river was fairly wide with a rock formation that would keep him from view. He took the book from his bag and continued reading where he left off. He started to like that librarian more and more.  
He wouldn't give Naruto the time of day, but for Sasuke .  
When he went in this morning he was posing as him with a quick henge and asked if he could provide him with a good book on fire jutsus for his teammate, if possible something he could use as well. The book he received must have reflected the librarian's opinion on both him and his teammate. It started for complete beginners and ended with some chuunin level techniques. He didn't know whether to feel insulted or pleased, since it was exactly what he needed.

The book was simple and to the point, the introduction was only a page long and thereafter immediatly followed by a simple technique.

"Technique #1: Breath of Flame.

Description:  
A simple technique used to introduce students to the principles of fire jutsus.  
With this technique a small flame is produced from the mouth, varying between 10 and 30 inches.

RULE #1: first time students please note to TURN YOUR YOUR BACK TOWARDS THE BOOK WHILE PRACTICING THE TECHNIQUES!  
Then followed the further instructions of molding chakra, making seals and releasing the molded chakra.  
It took Naruto only a few minutes to successfully execute the technique. He played with it for a couple of minutes to test his level of control. When he was satisfied he moved on to the next one, which handled the spitting of very small fireballs.

He kept repeating this process for about 2 hours, after successfully having learned 6 minor techniques. Skipping a few pages ahead, he noticed that Sasuke's favored Grand Fireball and Fire Flower techniques were only a few pages further. They would have to wait though. He was hungry and on a tight schedule. He performed what had become his trademark seal. Three shadow clones appeared next to him.  
"Backup team reporting for duty sir"  
He saluted to his crew and stood for them.  
"Clone nr 1, your job is to search the forest for fruit, vegetables or any other source of food"  
"Sir, yes sir"  
"Clone nr 2, step forward. Your mission will be to supply us with firewood, afterwards you will assist clone nr 1 in his job"  
"Aye ay sir"  
"Clone nr 3, you and me are going fishing. You will search the river upstream, while I will be looking downstream"  
"Yes sir"  
"Alright, report back here in fifteen minutes."

Upon return Naruto brought 3 fish with him. Being able to walk on water definitely had advantages. His upstream colleague returned moments later with a single fish. Clone #1 had done a fine job. Dry wood and leaves were already piled up, ready to be sparked on fire. He returned with his partner, both holding their hands full with berries. They placed their findings on the towel Naruto always caried in his bag and disappeared, while the last clone gutted the fish and spiked them on a stick.  
Naruto himself lit the fire with one of his new techniques.

Hinata had spend the rest of her day on her studies on medical plants and wandered in the forest behind the training areas in search of herbs. She was just on her way home to get a bite to eat until she recognized the smell of roasting fish in the air. The smell was strong, indicating someone must be cooking not far from here. For some reason her intuition told her to check out the source. After a few minutes she came upon a rock formation.  
Some smoke was coming up from behind it. Silently she moved closer towards the rocks. When she took a peek behind she let out a small gasp and a whispered a quiet "Naruto-kun" as she recognized her crush sitting by the fire.  
A slight smile came across her face as she continued to watch him.

He was sitting in the lotus position some distance from the fire, upwind so the smell of fish wouldn't be all over him. His face was pointed upwards. Suddenly he seemed to grab something above his head and looked at the fish. He was definitely holding something in his hand since he had raised it and was looking as if inspecting something.  
Hinata leaned closer to the rock surface to get a better look on the object he was holding. She must have brushed against a loose rock or something because the next thing she heard was the sound of rock falling on rock.

Naruto looked up at the sudden noise.  
"Shit, someone's spying on me. Goddamit, who, and how much have they seen? I have to find out"  
He stood up and moved as fast and silent he could towards the point of the sound's origin, hoping the intruder hadn't already fled or didn't hear him coming. Instead of running around the rock to see behind the corner he jumped on top of it and simply looked down at the voyeur.  
"Wh-Hinata?"

Hinata nearly fell back from surprise as she heared him. She should have run, she still wanted to, but she couldn' would he think of her then. What should she do? What should she say?  
"Uhm.. hello Naruto-kun"  
I'Naruto-KUN ? That's a first.'/I He knew Hinata from the academy. He had always found her a little ... weird, but something told him she was a nice person.  
"You hungry"  
"Eh.. nani"  
_'Why would he ask me if I'm hungry? He must know I was watching him, why would..'_  
"Are you hungry? I'm making dinner, but I'm not a real fish lover. Besides, we're both genin, we should get to know eachother"  
_'Is this really happening? Naruto-kun asking me to have dinner with him. Please don't let this be a dream'_  
"I- I'ld l-like that, Naruto-kun"  
"Ok then, hurry up, I think my fish are burning."

They weren't.

* * *

Athor's Note:

A hearthy thanks to Fixing for sending me a lot of corrections


	2. Chapter 2

"Phew, they're ok. For a minute they got me worried there"  
He picked up two of them and placed them a little further from the fire, to prevent them from burning and presented the other two to his unexpected guest. Hinata took the smaller one and gave out a slight "Arigato.  
Both sat down near the fire and started eating.

"So Hinata, what were you doing out here"  
"Uhm.. I was gathering medical herbs in the forest"  
"Hehe, you seem to have wandered off quite a bit. There's not much growing here." He let his eyes wonder over the open place covered by nothing but stones that ran right into the river. At one time the river must have reached to this height.  
Hinata blushed and bowed down her face, looking down at the ground.  
"Ano ... I was on my way home until I smelled roasted fish"  
Naruto scratched the back of his head in a gesture of embarrassment. "Yeah well, I guess that was a dead giveaway," he said laughing the words.  
A gentle smile graced Hinata's face.  
"Were you training here, Naruto-kun"  
"Kinda, but it's ok. I enjoy the company"  
"A-arigato"  
"How's your fish"  
"It's good"  
"Glad you like it."

Both continued talking for several hours. It was rare that Naruto had someone to talk to, so when he did he tried making the conversation last as long as he could.  
"Say Hinata, do you like ramen"  
"I-I guess so, yes"  
"Great! We could have dinner sometime at Ichiraku's. If you don't mind of course"  
"I don't mind. I-I would really like that"  
"Alright, it's a deal. Tomorow at seven okay with you"  
"Hai"  
It had started getting dark and the fire had long gone out.  
"It's getting late now though. What say I walk you home"  
"Okay Naruto-kun."

Both packed up their bags and together they walked through the forest leading to the training areas.  
When they reached the city streets night had already covered Konoha in it's blanket of stars and darkness.  
Hinata was happy that her face was conceited by shadows. The only light falling on them was that of the moon and the lights inside the houses, penetrating through the curtains. She had been blushing for quite some time now, as the side by side walk to her home was like a fantasy of hers. Her crush was walking her home, making sure she would be safe from harm.  
She was disappointed as they arrived at her home, it was the end of a beautiful dream.

"This is where I live. Arigato for walking me home, Naruto-kun"  
"You're welcome. So I'll see you Tomorow at seven, okay"  
"Hai"  
"Ok, good night Hinata"  
"Good night, Naruto-kun."

When he arrived at home Naruto mused over the day's happenings. He felt good tonight, having accomplished and learned a great deal and getting to know Hinata better. He hated being alone and always welcomed a new friend in his life. Too bad he hadn't done any chakra training today. Well he had done the leaf-forehead thingy, but then he met Hinata.  
He remembered the occurrence and noticed there was something else. Something he was thinking at that time .  
Yeah that was it, he couldn't watch the fish roasting when floating the leaf above his forehead.  
"Sooo... let's try if I can do it at other places. I've got a few more hours to spend before hitting the sack."

He picked up a leaf from the stack he kept around the house and placed it on the palm of his hand.  
When he concentrated his chakra the leaf immediately shot up to the ceiling.  
"Okay, lesson one: hands clearly emit more chakra then the forehead"  
This time he gradually increased his chakra until the leaf gently started to float.  
After a few minutes he had gotten used to the change in amount of chakra he had to use, so he placed the leaf on his other hand. He found that his chakra control in his left hand was a little less stable, but figured it might be because he was right handed. About fifteen minutes later he was satisfied with his amount of control. He took a look at his watch, placing the leaf back in his right hand, making it float above his hand again.  
"Damn it, if it only takes half an hour to do this it can't be that impressive. I might be as good as Sasuke now, but remembering Wave country I'm probably nothing compared to Sakura. That might not be the point of the whole thing, but I want to humiliate the bastard. It's not good enough to just be better, I need to be overwhelming"  
Thinking these words the leaf had started to twist around it's axis faster and faster.  
He noticed and as he started thinking over it the leaf almost instantly left his hand twirling wildly.

"What the hell was that? I didn't know it could do that. ... Somehow .. I must have ... put more chakra in the technique .. without losing control or changing height... So ... the extra chakra must have started the rotation. Okaay... Well anyway , if I did it by accident I have to be able to do it again, right"  
More then an hour had gone by before he finally started to comprehend the workings of the technique.  
"Jeezes, this is hard. I don't even know why I'm doing this and if it even would pay off, but if it's this hard, it's gotta be good"  
Slowly but surely he found the way to make the leaf spin in his hands again. Attempts to make the leaf spin faster proved futile as it would simply spin out of his hand.

"AAAARGH! Do I have to pin you down or what!" he cursed at the leaf that was now tumbling down the air again.  
"... Actually, yeah, let's try that, see how you like that, you little fucking piece of ...", he continued expressing his unsatisfied demands of the leaf's performance.  
Hurriedly he walked over to his desk, picked up the metal paperweight and placed it upon the leaf he held in his hand.  
"Now let's see you fly, huh!"

He lifted up both objects with his chakra. He needed to put in a whole lot more, cause of the added weight, but knowing Naruto, that wasn't much of a problem. Once he gained enough control to keep the paperweight at a steady height he started the rotation. Slowly, but surely the paperweight's movement started to increase. When it came to the point where the leaf would get out of control because of wind friction it stayed steadily rotating in his hand.  
"Yeah, you ain't so hot now, are ya"  
He continued spinning the weight above his hand furiously trying to keep increasing the speed of rotation. But after reaching a certain speed the weight seemed to spin out of control and went flying through the room. It crashed into the wall making a dent in the stone as well as the metal surface of the weight.

"FUCK! I thought I had something there. Ah well, back to the drawing board I guess. Where's the leaf"  
He looked around for a few seconds. He didn't see it fall anywhere or fly of in his usual manner.  
"Where did the damn thing go? Ah well, better pick up the paperweight, I'ld probably just hurt my foot against it in the morning otherwise"  
When his fingers reached the bottom though, he quickly pulled back.  
"Shiiiiit, hot hot hot hot hot!" He ran for the faucet and turned on the cold water. "Man, what the hell made that thing so hot? It was levitating three inches above my hand, it should be room temperature"  
He went back to the weight, picking it up with a wet towel. Inspecting the underneath only made things more strange.  
Again, there was no trace to the whereabouts of the missing leaf, but the underneath of the weight looked as if it had been polished on a piece of sandpaper. A spiraling pattern was visible on the place he concentrated his chakra.  
"What the hell? Tonight's only getting stranger and stranger... Maybe I should call it a night before things get out of hand. It's late anyways and I've got training Tomorow. I'll figure out what's caused this then"  
He put the paperweight on the kitchen sink to let it cool of and placed a kunai on his papers too keep then from drifting around, then he hit the sack.

At seven Naruto got out of bed, fixed himself a quick breakfast and headed of to Sasuke's house again.  
He had brought a notebook with him this time. Once more he found his teammate training in the Uchiha courtyard, while Naruto hid himself somewhere out of sight in the form of one of the raven haired boy's fan girls. His disgust for his teammate only grew as he observed his actions, taking notes and making sketches of his movements. "What's so fucking special about you, Uchiha. It's not enough that you were left a mansion fit for a clan, a bloodline technique that allows you to use other's jutsu's as if they are yours and the love and respect of the entire village; but you have to take them all for granted"  
More scribbling followed as the onyx eyed boy launched a combination of kicks, punches and elbows against the training dummies.  
'How do you come up with those techniques? There's no one to train you. I don't think there's even anyone in the village who uses your style. So where do you get those fancy moves?'

Once again Sasuke left the courtyard. This was Naruto's signal to head for his team's meeting point.  
He arrived last at the bridge, not counting their sensei off course. As usual Sakura was trying to chat up Sasuke, who was just staring off into nothingness. Naruto just took a seat on the railing again and plugged in his earphone.  
He was nodding his head slowly to the beats of the music, but never taking his eyes of his teammates. The waiting was mind numbing. After about 45 minutes he suddenly called out Sakura. The pink haired genin looked a little agitated when she turned her head.  
'Heh, looks like she remembers the little talk we had yesterday. Good, this could be worthwhile'  
"Yes, Naruto?" she sighed.  
"You got an answer yet?" the blond asked, removing his headphones.  
"Are you there again with your stupid questions! Look Naruto, I don't know what you're trying to do, but you're starting to piss me off. So if this is some plan of you to get me on a date, just give it up, cause it will never happen"  
Naruto didn't even blink. Yesterday, he was just being curious and rational. It had been a simple question. He hadn't expected an answer and had turned out to be right about it. Today, he just liked being an asshole.  
He slowly stood up and walked towards Sakura, holding his hands behind his back. When he stood in front of her, he slowly leaned forwards inches from her face. Then he softly spoke: "Do you think I look like I care?" He turned his back to her and walked back to his spot.  
Sakura on the other hand launched a fist towards the back of her teammate's head.

Naruto had expected it however and made a circular motion. He caught her arm and held it in a tight grip. His hand fitted easily around her slender arm. Sakura was surprised by the blonde's sudden movements. His next words surprised her even more.  
"If you need to use violence to prove a point, you have already lost the argument." With that he released her arm and moved on like nothing had ever happened.

'What the hell is happening to Naruto? First he turns almost so quiet and now he's turning philosophical on me? I almost believe he's genially not interested in going out with me anymore. Something's going on and I'll find out what'  
Thinking about this Sakura positioned herself once again next to Sasuke. This time, she remained silent for a longer time however.

'Something's definitely up with the dobe. He's being way too quiet for quite some time now and it's been days since he did or said anything stupid. ... Whatever, he's none of my concern, I've got bigger fish to fry.'

Two hours later Kakashi finally arrived.  
"Konichiwa, sorry I'm late but I noticed I was wearing two different socks and when I came home I noticed all my clothes were in the laundry"  
"LIAR!" Sakura shouted out of force of habit. Normally Naruto would always back her up, these last few days however she had been scolding Kakashi on her own. As always he ignored her and went on with explaining today's training.

"Today we'll be making a visit to training area #58. You've probably heard of it, it's the one with the mechanized dummies. Your objective will be to obtain a wooden box positioned on the main hill. It's heavily guarded, weighs about 60 pounds and is not to be damaged in any way. So Sasuke, watch out with those fire jutsus and Naruto ... just don't drop it. You've got till five to obtain the box by any means and deliver it to the following address." With that the silver haired jounin disappeared in a puff of smoke. When it cleared a piece of paper with the address on it was left.

Naruto picked it up and stuffed the paper in his pocket. After which he took of in the direction of the designated area.  
Sasuke and Sakura quickly picked up his pace.  
It wasn't long before the raven haired boy took his place in front of Naruto as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop through the village. i'Fucking cocky bastard.'/i

Four minutes later they arrived at the area entrance. Sasuke stopped and started summing up the situation.  
"Okay, what I know of the area is that it spans about an 8 mile diameter including a small forested area and a small creek runs down from the central hill. This area here provides little to no cover and far as I know there are about eighty or so animated dummies set up on strategical points. This is probably a simple go-get training that should test our offensive capabilities.  
I suggest we make our way to the creek and follow it to the main hill. I'll take point, Naruto, you guard the back, Sakura, you'll be support"  
"Negative"  
"He, excuse me?" Sasuke asked, amused as if disagreeing with him on matters of shinobi was the dumbest things to do.  
Naruto had a serious look on his face and his eyes never seemed to let go of Sasuke's.  
"I said no. I've got better things to do with my time. We do this thing, today's training is over. So I'm saying we do this as fast as possible. We go straight for the main hill, smashing anything we come across, get the damn crate, deliver it and make some real use of the rest of the day. And I'm taking point"  
"And why on earth should we listen to a dobe like you?", ridicule poured out of Sasuke's dark onyx eyes.  
"Because if this is a test of our offensive skills; like you say it is, let's be offensive. That is, unless you're afraid of a little combat. Or do you think you won't be able to keep up with me?", a foxy grin appeared on the blonde's face.  
"Don't make me hurt you, dobe!" Sasuke tightened his fists.  
"Feeling threatened, Uchiha? Scared of a challenge"  
"If that's what it takes to shut you up, bring it"  
"Fine. You follow the fence a hundred yards one way, I'll do the same the other way. First one to the crate wins. And you know, I'm feeling pretty generous today so you can even take Sakura with you"  
"I don't need her, she' ld only slow me down"  
"Ouch, now that's a little bit harsh, she's standing right there you know. Besides, I never said you had to"  
"Whatever, you're on, dobe."

The dark haired boy walked casually to the entrance, followed by Naruto.  
"Oh Sasuke, after you lose, I'll be happy to give you some basic combat lessons"  
"I'll make you eat those words next time we're sparring, dobe"  
"Whatever, let's just get started already"  
Both boys darted of in a wild blur. After passing the said hundred yards both disappeared from view in the canopy.

Sakura had been standing there dumbfound as the argument had found place.  
She had wanted to speak up to stand by Sasuke's case, but had been cut short by both boys every time.  
When Sasuke had finally said something about her, she felt the words as if they had been a stab to the heart.  
"I would only slow you down." She sobbed the words quietly to herself.

'Now this sure is interesting. But it verifies my suspicions. Anyway, I oughta keep an eye on those two. Should do something about her as well though.' In another puff of smoke Kakashi appeared in front of the pink haired genin, startling her and making her lose balance. Ungracefully Sakura fell on her bottom, looking up to the tall silver haired jounin.  
"Ey Sakura, why aren't you training with your teammates?" "He said," every word was an effort to her throat, ".. he said, I ... I would only slow him down. ... Sasu"  
"He's right." The words were cold. "But that shouldn't stop you from training. As a matter of fact, it should encourage you." The jounin's face turned into one of understanding and sympathy. He knelt down to her level, "Sakura, let's face it; your tai-jutsu is the weakest of the team and your stamina and chakra levels are barely acceptable for a genin. You try to make up for it by this "perfect chakra control" of yours, but you have been seriously neglecting your stamina, bringing you at this situation." Kakashi offered his hand to the young girl. When she reached for it he helped her on her feet again.  
"So we'll have to work on that. Your new training for the rest of the day will be to run 10 laps around this area. After the first round you'll be encountering some dummies every few kilometers. And I suggest you start doing this on a daily basis"  
The jounin played his hand through the young genin's hair, "Now get going girl, or you'll never be able to keep up with your teammates." With that he disappeared once more that day.  
Once the smoke cleared Sakura whispered a slight "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei" and entered the training area.

Sasuke encountered his first opponents less then 2 minutes after he had vanished into the trees. Five dummies jumped in view, seemingly coming from nowhere. Never slowing his pace he ran towards them and took out the one on the right by faking a straight forward jumping kick and making a roundhouse at the last second. The dummies head got crushed on impact with his left foot. Immediately afterwards he jumped high up and threw three shuriken at three other dummies. They seemed to have no effect on the wooden dolls as they just stayed stuck in their bodyparts. Seeing that the dummies kept moving he started forming seals in midair. When his feet found the branch of a nearby tree he had completed them and threw a grand fireball towards them. Three more dummies found their demise. One of the survivors saw the opportunity to launch an attack from a lower branch and came jumping towards Sasuke, who easily dodged the oncoming dummies. When he was midair he got attacked by the other dummy and had to block an incoming wooden foot. He managed to grab the dummy's leg and slam his opponent against a tree. His last opponent met its end when Sasuke countered his punch and broke his neck.  
'Heh, that only slowed me down for about seventeen seconds. But that fireball takes to much chakra if I want to keep up this pace. If I pull one every odd, or every third time I should be able to still make good time though. That dobe doesn't stand a chance.'

'I see Sasuke is handling himself perfectly, as I expected. At this pace he could reach the package in about half an hour. He's got a pretty good chance at breaking the course record for his age, not including speed-specialists like that Rock Lee kid , off course. Naruto shouldn't be too far behind, it's only been 2 and a half minutes, better go check up on him'  
Kakashi set of to a point where Naruto should pass any second on his arrival. When more then thirty seconds passed he decided to head back to check if the blonde was he found though were the broken parts of the five dummies.  
A quick glance was enough to see that the dummies were broken by normal hand and footwork, no ninjutsu seemed to have been used, as there were no traces of abnormal damage to the dummies or the surrounding area.

'He must be using Kage Bunshin, but if he's this far already he must be using a lot of them. My guess is he makes the bunshins fight the dummies and continues running to his goal. Judging by the distance between his footsteps he's keeping up a fast pace too. Good thinking Naruto, you'll make record time that way, just one problem. Since your chakra control isn't all that you're probably using way too much and the high pace will drain your stamina, you'll be lucky if you reach the goal at all,' were the thoughts going through Kakashi's head as he followed the trail Naruto was leaving behind.

It wasn't long before the jounin had caught up with his student. The kid was keeping up the pace alright, he was easily topping Sasuke's. 'Now let's see how exactly you handle combat.' Moments later the next batch of dummies was activated and attacked Naruto from the flank. Naruto simply jumped out of the way of the oncoming dummies and created exactly one clone for each dummy, never even slowing down for a second. The clones made short work of the opponents, when one dummy was defeated the victorious clone would help out another, ganging up on the remaining dummies. The whole fight lasted less then ten seconds. All six clones had survived the ordeal, but they were in bad shape, sweating profoundly and trying to catch their breath.

'Clones are created with a fixed amount of chakra. This amount determines their stamina and the amount of chakra they can use. They can't regain any stamina by resting and their life span is determined by the amount of stamina they have at creation and the amount they use in fights or other activities. Now, your chakra get's split up evenly among you and your clones, plus he needs a steady amount of it to keep up this high pace. That and the constant replenishing and distributing of his supply should wear him out significantly.  
Either Naruto got lucky when he made these clones or he had a pretty good idea of the amount the clones and chakra he would need to win this fight. But that would require a good deal of control... Could he really have improved so much in such short time? That would be amusing, interesting and doubtfull. It's not like his stamina has grown so much lately either. I just hope he's not getting it from somewhere else. His signature seems clean though'  
The jounin made a frown at these thoughts. There was definitely something going on with Naruto. He had become so quiet lately, more reserved, more mature. He was almost reminding him of .. Sasuke?  
'But why would he do that? As far as I can tell he never liked his teammate. Why would he start following his example. The two of you have been like day and night? One open and enthusiastic, one calm and reserved; one cheery, one grim; one bright, one dark; one loved and admired, one ha- ... No. Naruto, I'm not sure what you're doing, but I think you're making a big mistake.'

For twenty minutes Naruto continued his wild dash before finally coming to a stop at the top of the hill.  
Surrounding the crate were ten dummies, each carrying a weapon. He threw a quick glance towards the direction Sasuke should be coming from. "Nothing yet, good, that gives me at least thirty more seconds"  
The final dummies guarding the crate looked different from those he had encountered on his way here, they looked smoother, as if made with greater care. And they were all carrying weapons, five were carrying swords, two had spears and three more had kunais.

"Okay, this is getting old, but I 'm not letting that bastard beat me now, not now I'm so close. Kage Bunshin no jutsu"  
When the smoke cleared the dummies were surrounded by three times their number in clones.  
"Sorry, but I don't have time to play with you guys! Charge"  
The clones had been standing in a three row circle around the dummies. On Naruto's command the first 2 rows charged into their opponents. The last row jumped straight up and threw their kunais at the dummies wielding kunais. Some kunai missed their targets being dodged or fended off, some of them struck other dummies, but none of those which did hit their targets seemed to be doing any damage.  
That wasn't the point though, as the kunais only were used as a distraction for the kunai wielding dummies, so they would not be able to target the flow of oncoming clones. Before the dummies could react to the attack steel and wood had met flesh made shadow. Each dummy was now fighting a clone, some already had fallen in battle. But everytime a clone was destroyed a second one would strike the offending dummy in whatever weakness he exposed before it could recover his stance from attacking.  
It was a devasting strategy, but of little use in a battle with real people. In little more then six seconds it was all over, fifteen clones and Naruto himself were all what was left of the fifty warriors that had entered combat.

Naruto was leaning with his hands on his knees, catching his breath. After a few moments he felt sufficiently recovered and dragged himself towards the crate and positioned himself on top of it. The long run had exhausted him, his legs felt soar and his lungs were burning. He needed to train more on his physique. A ninja shouldn't show weakness and exhaustion clearly is a sign of one. Tomorow he would add running a few laps around the village to his list of things to do.  
The clones had formed a circle around him, with their backs towards him sitting in the lotus position. There was no need for them anymore, but discarding them would just be a waste of chakra. Naruto didn't fully understood how or why, but there was something about having a multitude of clones around. Things seemed to be simpler. It was as if his mind became divided into smaller pieces, each thinking for themselves. He knew what every clone was thinking about and they knew every thought and desire of him. Sometimes he was surprised of what went on in the minds of the fellas. The clone directly in front of him was counting the time for Sasuke to arrive, the one to his right imagined various ways to get the crate to its destination, an other one wondered how Sasuke could get those fancy tai-jutsu moves. The one directly behind him was reliving the events that happened last night with Hinata, Naruto had enjoyed those moments of peace, just talking with someone. But he would see her again later today, so he let the clone alone with these thoughts. The best way he could think of working with the clones was as if his subconscious was almost completely removed and used by his creations, which kinda explained why he found everything so much simpler when he had some around and why he always felt a little wiser after he had meditated with them and they had disappeared. They all looked at different things that occupied his mind and gave those thoughts a lot off attention, sometimes solving the problems completely.

Sasuke reached the open grass at the front clone's count of 257, being at lower ground he could not make out Naruto's form at the top of the hill.  
'Hah, looks like I'm there. Let's see what the grand finale at the top will hold in store. That poor dobe didn't stand a chance in hell.' Sasuke grinned at these thoughts and began the final climb to his goal.  
Ascending the hill robbed him of his vision of the top. When he finally reached it however he wasn't happy with what he saw.  
On top of the hill he saw the objective of his mission and before sat a lone Naruto, leaning his back against the crate, casually lying in wait of him.  
'What the fuck! How the .. This can't be right! It must be gen-jutsu, cause there's no way'  
"Sharingan"  
"You're gonna copy the movements and chakra molding of me, sitting on my ass? Jeezes, they call you a genius? I figured that one out without even having seen it"  
"Naruto"  
"No, it's your aunt Sherry. Who do you think, genius"  
'No, this is impossible. He couldn't have gotten here so fast. My pace was high and none of my encounters took me over 20 seconds. Naruto couldn't have possibly beaten me, yet here he stands'  
"How"  
" 'How?' Easy! Allow me to demonstrate." Naruto got up to feet and joined his hands as if to mold chakra. With his sharingan eyes Sasuke didn't see the blonde gathering any chakra at all, yet he kept this pose for a few seconds before yelling.  
"ASS-SITTING-NO-JUTSU!" After this the young genin smoothly sat himself on his ankles, leaned back against the crate and moved his feet a little forward so they stood comfortly.  
"Think you pull that one off, Uchiha"  
Anger and frustration shot out from Sasuke's face. How had this dobe gotten here so fast? He couldn't have possibly gotten here so fast! Naruto couldn't be better then him. He was a loudmouthed clown, barely worthy of the title of ninja.  
'Have I been slacking off? No! No way, I 've been training hard everyday. I can't have been slacking off, not with him still breathing. Then how '  
"How did you get here that fast, you idiot"  
"You're asking me and I'm the idiot"  
"There's no way you could have beaten me here. You must have taken a shortcut"  
"A shortcut? As in, 'shorter then a straight line'-kinda shortcut? Yeah sure Sasuke, I took a shortcut ... through a black hole!"

Sasuke's world was turning upside down. Naruto had beaten him. It was something he had long thought impossible, now proven to be truth. The blonde was right, he couldn't have possibly taken a shorter or faster path. At least he wasn't rubbing it in yet, something he hadn't expected from the loudmouth brat.

"Hey Uchiha, stop standing there and help me move this crate will ya? I'ld like to get on with my day."


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto's legs were still sore of the long run and carrying that crate back hadn't done them much good either.  
He had thought about leaving Sasuke alone with the crate, but had opted not to since there was no way the raven haired boy could have gotten it delivered on his own.  
Naruto could have created a clone to help him carry the crate, but to carry it alone would require more strength then either of the teammates had.

Since his legs wouldn't allow him any further physical training for the rest of the day he opted for some quiet recovery time in the park. He took place on a bench and opened the book on prominent clans in Konoha that he had borrowed from the library.  
The book covered three clans: the Hyuuga, the Uchiha and the Aburame.  
"He, Hinata's part of one of Konoha's most powerful clans. I'ld have never imagined her as royalty."

The first part handled the Hyuuga, starting with the history of the clan since the founding of Konoha village.  
It wasn't the most thrilling piece of lecture for Naruto, but it would be a necessity to fulfill his plan. Besides, if he were to become Hokage, he would have to know more about the inner workings of the village. So far he had only read about the first fifty years of Konoha history and already there seemed to be a complicated net of politics and diplomacy among the clans. Thereby came that at that time the Great Ninja War waged across the land, which didn't make things simpler. He had learned about the War in the academy, but never had the lessons been as intricate as the book described. Fifty pages later Naruto desperately needed a break. He had expected somewhat lighter literature. He put the book away in his bag, stretched his legs for the third time that day and strolled to the river.

As he watched the flow of the river he noticed little whirlpools here and there. He wandered over for a closer look at the phenomenon. He sat himself near the edge of the river and let his mind wonder.  
'How would my chakra look if I stepped on one of those? With a small one like this , I'll probably just flatten it out, but let's say I stood on top of a really strong one. Would it twist and turn my chakra? '  
In his mind he imagined his chakra taking the form of the little whirlpool, twisting and turning around itself-  
'That's it! That's exactly what I've been doing all this time!'

He replayed the events of the night before in his head, imagining the twisting whirlpool of chakra in his hands.  
'No, that's not quite right. It doesn't add up, I was releasing chakra from the entire palm of my hand, so the base should be pretty big ... and the circular damage to my paperweight was a little smaller. So it would kinda look the other way around. But not entirely pointy at the top. He, imagine I would have made it completely cone-shaped, I would've probably completely drilled through it. ... Hey, now that would be cool! If I could develop that technique, it would be as if I'ld be punching people with a drill instead of just my fists!'

With renewed enthusiasm he stood up and wanted to run over to the forest to try out his theory on the trees, but then his legs cramped up again. "Ooooooooooooooo-oooooooooooo-oooooooooh, wow man, I really have to start working on those fast long distance runs."

It was three past seven and Hinata had been waiting at Ichiraku for the last 6 minutes. She was sitting quietly in the corner of the stand, waiting in her shell, already almost completely forgotten in the old man's mind. 'I hope he hasn't forgotten about me. Please don't let him have forgotten me. No, no, he's probably just a little late. I shouldn't have come here so early. I only make myself more nervous if I show up early. Naruto wouldn't just forget about me. He would never break his word like that. It's only a few past seven, I'm sure he'll show up any time now. ... But what if he doesn't?'

"Oi, Hinata"  
The timid pupil-les girl startled as the blonde boy made an enthusiastic appearance.  
"H-hi, Naruto"  
"Sorry I'm a little late. Overdid myself a little at training today, I hope I haven't kept you waiting too long"  
"N-no, it's okay, I was a little early"  
"Oh. ... I trust Ichira-san has treated you well then"  
"A- Who"  
"What? You're kidding right? Hey Ichira, don't tell me you have been ignoring my guest all the time she's been waiting"  
"Eh?" The old man turned around with a dull face, instantly forming to a smile when he recognized his most loyal customer.  
"Oi Naruto! Gomen nasai, I didn't know she was waiting for you." Ichira stepped over to the side where both youngsters were sitting and made a slight bow to the young girl.  
"Ichira Kumara, at your service. Eh ... Excuse me, but you seem to be lacking something in your eyes"  
"Ichira, baka; Hinata is a Hyuuga. They are the most respected clan in Konoha, and they all have eyes like that"  
"Oh, I get it. Too respected to eat a lowly little ramen stand he. My apologies miss Hyuuga-sama. Now may I be so kind as to take your order please"  
"Ah, I'ld like some Miso Ramen, please"  
"Very well miss, I'll start right on it"  
"Hey, what about me"  
"What, you're still here? You better behave, little commoner, I 'm having a well respected client right now. This place is finally getting some class"  
"What the -? I brought her here, old man"  
"Sure you did, but then why did she show up before you"  
"Ano, I "  
"Don't make me come over there old timer"  
"Don't make ME spike your ramen with wasabi again, slick"  
"Ano"  
"I oughta beat you up with your own spoon Ichira"  
"And I should put these chopsticks in a dark, warm and very uncomfortable place"  
"Narut"  
"You still haven't fixed the light in the restroom"  
"I always forget to buy a bulb when I'm in the store"  
"I think I might still have one laying around at home, I'll bring it over later tonight"  
"Thanks kid, now what will you have"  
"Beef ramen, please"  
"Sure, fix you right up"  
The old man winked at Hinata and turned around again to his kettle.

"Na-Naruto"  
"Oh, sorry Hinata, it's a little thing me and Ichira do from time to time"  
"Oh"  
"So, how was your day"  
"It was okay. Kurenai-sensei had us training at area 12 today, then we had to track down a little boy whose parents lost sight of him. We found him playing in the park"  
"I bet you three would make a great team of hunter-nins one day"  
"A-arigato"  
"Hey Naruto, you two want that order to go"  
"Erhm, Hinata, would you mind if we went for a stroll? If I sit around too much, my legs'll be sore again"  
"I-I don't mind, Naruto"  
"To go will be fine, Ichira"  
"Okay, here you go. I'll put yours on your tab, miss Hinata's will be on the house"  
"Hey, why is mine never on the house"  
"Does it matter? You would've been paying for her's anyway, right"  
"Erhm, right"  
"Good, now bonne apetite. See ya later kid, and be sure to visit anytime miss Hyuuga-sama"  
"Arigato, Kumara-san."

The two young genin left the ramen stand. Naruto thought it best to leave the more crowded market area and took a narrow street where he knew few people walked around this time of day. He didn't know whether he did it for himself to avoid the glares of the adults, or for her, to avoid people seeing her with him. Chances were her family wouldn't like her to be hanging around with him.

"So eh, Hinata, is there any place you'ld like to go? Cause I actually have no idea of what I'm doing right now"  
"Eh, there's a place in the forest not far from here where I often have lunch with my team"  
"Sounds good to me. Lead the way, I'll be right behind ya"  
"H-hai."

Few minutes later they arrived at an small open area in the forest. Naruto noticed this place was indeed often used. The grass was flat at certain places and there were traces of a recently made cooking fire.  
"Nice place you guys got here"  
"Arigato"  
"Sooo ... how do you get along with your team"  
"Well ..okay, I guess. Kiba's nice, in his own way. Shino ... well he rarely sais anything at all, but he always knows what's to be done"  
"What about Kurenai"  
"Kurenai's a good person as well as teacher. She always looks after us and never puts us down. I like her"  
"Seems like you got lucky then"  
"You don't like your team, Naruto"  
"What's there to like"  
"I-I thought at the academy ... that you ... that you liked ... Sakura"  
Hinata's voice was even softer then it was normally. Her eyes fled down as she spoke, as if she regretted speaking the words before she said them. Every letter of them seemed to hurt her while she formed the words in her mind, yet it was a question of which she had to face the answer.

"Heh, guess I did back then. ... But I've come a long way since the academy"  
The blue haired girl's eyes slowly looked up, showing a sparkle of hope.  
"Re-really"  
Naruto seemed firmly focused an a particular piece of beef in his cup of ramen as he kept poking it with his chopsticks.  
"Yeah well ... I honestly don't remember what I ever saw in her. I mean, she's pretty and all, but all she's ever interested in, or talks about or sides up with is Sasuke. I swear, the guy can't do anything wrong and I can't do a thing right for her. If he would set himself on fire one day, she'ld probably praise him for the color of the flames and then join him"  
"What about your sensei"  
"Kakashi? Same story really, only he doesn't show it that much. I can't really call him a coldhearted bastard, but I only hear him bad mouth me. I've never heard him compliment me, while I never hear him complain about Sasuke. Even Sakura gets his thumbs-up for her 'perfect chakra control'. Today at training I beat Sasuke to the package, Tomorow I'll probably be scolded for it. No matter what I do, at the end of the day they all still look at me as 'the dobe"  
He poked viciously at the piece of beef and then scooped up a big portion of ramen.  
An uncomfortable silence fell between the two as they both looked down on their ramen, thinking of something better to talk about.

"So ... Erhm, Naruto-kun, how do you know Kumara-san so well"  
"Oh, he opened his shop here in town a few weeks after I was released from the orphanage. I've been eating there ever since"  
"Ano ... don't you ever ... get tired of ramen all the time"  
"Well ... on rare occasions, but there are a lot of different flavours so I get by. Besides, I don't really go there for the food. It's the service that does it. Ichiraku's the just about only place in town I get welcomed with a smile"  
"Oh ... But ... don't you ever .. cook at home"  
The blonde boy blushed ever so slightly, scratching the back of his head before looking up with an innocent grin on his face.  
"I ... I can't cook"  
"But, those fish you made the other day"  
"That was about the limit of my cooking abilities. Kakashi made those once when we were on a mission. It's not really haute cuisine either. You just take a fish, gut it and shove it on a stick. Anyone can do that"  
"Would y- ... would you like me to teach you"  
"You'ld do that"  
"If- if you want to"  
"Are you kidding me, that'ld be great! When do we start"  
"Erhm, I- I could come over tomorow if you like"  
"Great! I'll make sure my kitchen is in order then."

The two of them talked for another hour before they decided to go their own ways.  
Naruto headed home to pick up the lamp he promised and then left again to bring them to the old Ichira.  
Then he was off again, dashing for the woods to make use of what little daylight he had left.

He started off about the same way he did last night, picking up a rock, gathering enough chakra in his hand to make it float and then making it rotate as fast as he could. Once again the rock suddenly shot out of his hand like the paper weight had last night. This time the rock had landed upside down so Naruto could inspect the bottom of it without burning his hands. The rock apparently was less resistant to the friction of his chakra, since the spiraling circle was much deeper this time and the grooves were showing much clearer. The circle was about 3 fingers diameter.  
"Now how am I supposed to shrink you down at the top..."

The rest of the time he had, Naruto practiced his newly found jutsu on a tree, taking a more horizontal approach.  
It were some hours of trial, error and repeat but in the end he had managed to shrink the top of his chakra cone to the diameter of his index finger. He was close, but would have to try again Tomorow since he wouldn't be able to check his progress in the dark.

Once back home he remembered he would still have to get his kitchen in order. He pulled open the cupboard and took out the pots and pans that had come with the house. It had been six years since he last looked at them and over the course of time they had done nothing but gather dust, grease and all those other unidentifiable things that objects seem to cover themselves with after a while. He dreaded the sight of them as he put them all on the sink. It would take at least the best part of an hour to get them all in a presentable state. "Maaaan, I don't have time for this. I barely got any training done today and I have to get up early tomorow." Without a second thought he created a clone and put him to work, while Naruto himself went off to his study. He read up on the next five fire jutsus in the book, familiarizing himself with the seals and the molding of chakra.  
After about half an hour he felt confident he would be able to successfully execute all five of them tomorow. As far as ninjutsu went, he was fairly sure he was nearing Sasuke's level, but his problem lay in the field of tai jutsu. 'But where does that asshole get his moves. I've never seen that style anywhere else, so it must be self tought. Still ... it's way too evolved to be his own, so it must be a house style. Then there must be records of it somewhere. The clan's been around for over 150 years, so someone must have at least tried to take over or find a response to the Uchiha style. ... Then again, we are talking about a clan of copycats... One day I'll get to the bottom of this. For now I'll just stick to analyzing his moves, maybe later I'll take my chance in the library or go have a look see at his place.'

By now the clone had finished up in the kitchen and had done some minor cleaning of the living room. There wasn't much to clean up anyway. Naruto never spend much time indoors. Being satisfied with his work the clone discarded himself in a puff of smoke. Naruto himself spend another hour reading up on Hyuuga history. There were still fifteen pages of history before the book would handle about the Hyuuga bloodline and their use of it in their jyuken fighting style, but fatigue was getting to the blonde. The day had been a long one and tomorow would be no better.

Suddenly it seemed like the day wouldn't just give itself up so suddenly. Naruto was just about to put out his pants as he heared one of his floorboards creaking behind him. He knew his house and that floorboard didn't just creak on his own. Some parts of the roof did on windy days, but each part of the house had it's own particular noise. Instinctly he grabbed for two kunai on his legs and twisted himself. Nothing to be seen, but he knew he wasn't alone in his home. He glanced around through the open part of the screen that separated his bedroom from the rest of his house, looking for any cast shadows or other traces of the intruder.  
"I rarely ever get any visitors, let alone at this hour, so I'm not picky about them. But I do tend to get those who don't knock out as soon as possible"  
No answer.  
He tried sensing for chakra, something that wasn't really his specialty, but he got lucky. 'He should be about a yard behind the screen a few foot to the right. Silently he created a shadow clone. Without making any sound Naruto moved so his opponent would be right in front of him, separated only by the thin paper screen. His clone then suddenly jumped into the other room, ready to throw his first kunai, but then suddenly yelling "STOOOP!" at his creator. Naruto was about to throw his kunai at the intruder, but then suddenly lowered it as he heared the clone's mental signal and the supporting scream. The clone holstered his weapons and then returned to the bedroom. Naruto put on his shirt and on his turn entered the living room.  
"I'ld never suspected anybody who had sprinted 5 miles would be jumping around this way later on the day"  
"It's not something I would recommend to everybody either"  
"So are you gonna tell me anything about it, or are you just gonna hush up about it all and pretend like nothing happened"  
"Tell you about what "  
"How about the fact that your chakra control has drastically raised so suddenly, or how you improved you tai-jutsu? And maybe most interesting of all, how you did those two at the same time"  
"What's wrong with me improving my skills as a ninja"  
"There's nothing wrong with that, I'm just worried about you losing your skills as a person. You seem to be growing more distant from your teammates."

Naruto thought about his sensei's comment for a second and then started laughing slightly.  
"Hehehe, how can you say that Kakashi-sensei, when there barely ever was a team to begin with"  
This finally pulled Kakashi's eye away from his little book. He gave a serious look to his student and finally said:  
"I know you and your team don't always get along Naruto, but I could always depend on you when the need arose. Now however it seems things are getting out of hand"  
"So off course the problem must lay with me ? That's utter crap sensei! Why don't you bother Sasuke about it? It's not like he's got the perfect personality. Or what about Sakura? No, no, forget Sakura, we both know that she's a total lost case.  
How would your team spirit be if you were paired up with a fancy training dummy with a henge on it and it's bitch"  
"I see ... So do you want a transfer to another team"  
"And then what, doing missions with two other people who hate my guts, not just for breaking up their perfectly good team, but also for being what I am? So we could have two worthless teams? Fuck that sensei, the team just has to accept me for who I am and if they can't handle that, so be it. But I'm not running away!"

Naruto unconsciously scratched his left hand after reaching the end of his sentence. Kakashi noticed and as he looked down on it, he remembered the first time he had heard those words from his student. That mission had changed his perspective of Naruto a great deal. He wondered if his student would reveal another part of himself again.

"Okay," the silver haired jounin said as he started reading his book again, "that'll do for now. But if the situation does not improve over the next few weeks, I'm booting you out myself"  
That was a prospect neither teacher or student looked forward to. It would surely put a stop to Naruto's plan. Kakashi didn't want to put his student through this either, but if he didn't there was no telling what Naruto could get himself into. Besides, he liked Sasuke, but one of them on his team was enough.

After Kakashi took his leave Naruto once again headed for his bedroom. He was surprised to find his clone there, sitting in a meditating position. Making a quick mental contact with it he learned that the clone wanted to think about some things for a while. Naruto was little confused about this answer, but disregarded it as he was too tired for discussion and since the clone was probably right. There was a lot to think about. 


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto awoke that morning feeling completely renewed. He grabbed a towel and headed for the shower. Upon returning to the kitchen area he found out that his clone really had been thinking about some things. On the table he found a stack of papers written in his own handwriting. Apparently his clone had spent the night thinking about a training schedule for a week. Just about everything was taken into account; endurance training, improving chakra control, observing Sasuke's tai jutsu training, studying theory while waiting for Kakashi, training with his team, jutsu practice, tai jutsu training and recreational time. The training would be extensive, taking optimal use of all the time of the week. He was going through some of the details of the training as suddenly his watch started beeping. Apparently the clone had taken the liberty of programming his alarm. He quickly looked back at the schedule and saw that he should start training allready. He quickly grabbed an apple, put the schedule in a pocket on his vest and headed out the door. His first stop would be the Uchiha mansion. As he passed the place he created a clone that should last for about 2 hours and passed him a notebook and a pen. Both nodded towards each other in understanding before the clone made it's way into the Uchiha courtyard and Naruto went on with what now become his morning ritual.

It was still seven in the morning, but already the village was fully awoken.  
The blonde gening ran further towards the most nearby gate that would lead out of the village. From that point we followed the village walls clockwise until he came to the river that flowed partly around Konoha. Naruto's morning jog suddenly took another turn as he leaped for the water and he continued running across it. The river followed the village up to the south gate and then continued streaming further away into the country. It took Naruto nearly an hour before he reached it, which meant he had almost an entire hour left before he had to show up at the bridge to meet with the rest of his team.  
As he arrived back home he put his clothes in the machine, after taking out the papers, and took another shower. After he put his clothes in the dryer he finally had a real breakfast and then took off again. On the way to the meeting point he passed the Uchiha's house again and quickly entered the courtyard where he picked up the clone's notes , leaving the rest of the notebook and the pen where they were, to be used again the next morning. As he neared the meeting spot he looked for a nice location to spend the next few hours reading. Once found he created another clone which he sent to the bridge. Maybe at some time in the future he would start doing some reading with his team, but there was no reason for them to know about this particular literature. Besides, the sooner he would finish this book, the sooner that problem's solution would probably arise. So much about him had changed in but a matter of weeks, so even Naruto himself had any idea of to what he would be doing the next one.

His clone arrived at the bridge and was greeted with Sasuke's complete ignoring of his existence and surprisingly by an accusation of Sakura.  
"You're late"  
"I am?", the clone looked down to his watch. "Wow, I sure am! By two whole minutes! By god! How could I? Please forgive my tardiness miss Haruna-san"  
Sakura's only reply was the dirty look she threw him. The clone just walked past her and sat himself in the lotus position in wait for Kakashi's arrival.  
Naruto himself however wasn't in the most Zen-state of mind. Last night he had read that what he had heard to be true as he had read the beginning of the arrogant Uchiha-clan. Now he was finally finding out about the complete powers of the Hyuuga bloodline. Their 360° of vision, the ability to see through solid objects, to see one's opponents chakra stream and more.  
And the Uchiha descended from this clan! He knew the Sharingan could be used to predict someone's movements in battle, to copy jutsu's of nearly any kind and to see through genjutu, but now he had read about the Hyuuga, he wondered if there was more. He hated those eyes. He hated them! He hated them and the skull that carried them, he hated them and the blood that ran through them. He hated that fucking Uchiha!

He resisted the urge to rip the book to shreds and slowly put it down. He needed to calm down. Only half an hour had passed, so that should still give him plenty of time. Time that could be made use of, instead of being totally wasted, waiting on some bridge, being around some total fuckwhat piece of sh... 'Calm down Naruto, you're trying to calm down'  
The orange clad genin gently leaned backwards against the tree. Closing his eyes he reached for the 3 leaves he had picked earlier and calmly let them float on his forehead and his hands. As the two in his hands slowly started turning Naruto let his mind flow freely.

It wasn't long before Naruto had once again found his peace. He stopped the rotation on his right hand and dropped the leaf on the grass then he picked the one above his forehead out of the air and did the same. He continued spinning the leaf in his left hand as he was reading the book with a content look on his face.  
On the bridge however things suddenly started to get more complicated.

"Neh, Naruto"  
The silent clone turned his head towards the young kunoichi as he opened his eyes. He had hoped to be able to spend the greater part of his time meditating. Two hours was a long time for any clone.  
"Yes"  
"What's up with you lately "  
The clone broke eye contact and started staring at a different direction.  
"What do you care"  
"I just .. I just want to know if you're okay." Sakura said while she on her turn lowered her head.  
"I'm fine"  
"Then why are you acting so ... different lately"  
"What's wrong with the way I act"  
"It's just .. not like you"  
"Well, since you weren't happy with the old me, that shouldn't be much of problem, right"  
"But ... I liked him better then this one"  
"Yeah, I'm sure having a clumsy, loudmouth baka who nearly always acts on impulse can be amusing at times"  
"I didn't mean you wer"  
"Then you shouldn't have kept saying it. It's simple Haruna; all the time you've been telling me to be more like him," as he threw a glance at his other teammate, "well I assure you that in a few weeks you won't be able to tell the difference."

Sasuke never was one to get involved into other's discussions, but this concerned him. The occurrences of yesterday still going through his mind might having something to do with his edgyness.  
"Ha, you'll never be able to reach up to my level, dobe. You might as well stop trying and save yourself the embarrassment"  
He had expected a flaming reply from the dobe, instead he just slowly adjusted his eyes to his direction and spoke in a quiet, diplomatic voice.  
"Hey Uchiha, just for your information, I haven't told anyone about yesterdays occurrence. But I'm planning on repeating it as often as I can in the future. So if you don't want your reputation of the genius Uchiha prodigy smothered too badly, I would keep stupid comments like that to myself if I were you"  
Sasuke's eyes burned in furry towards the clone. His pride had been given a huge smack in the face by what happened yesterday and he wasn't about to let that happen again. Regaining his composure he quickly replied.  
"He, too bad for you dobe, because whatever happened yesterday will have been the only time something like that occurred"  
"We shall see about that Uchiha, we shall see."

Sakura had been quiet during their dialogue. Beside from the fact that she had no idea what had happened yesterday, she now wasn't sure whether she wanted to know anymore. Until a minute ago she had been sure Sasuke-kun had won Naruto's stupid challenge, but now nothing seemed certain anymore. So much had changed so fast recently and she had no idea what could happen next.

Naruto made the switch with his clone after Kakashi arrived when they headed towards the river. Apparently they were given a D-ranked mission of cleaning up the riverbanks and everything that floated along. To everyone's surprise Kakashi had given Sakura the task of swimming in the river and throwing everything she came across ashore. After a slight protest of the pink haired kunoichi he had reminded her that her stamina definitely still needed improvement. Naruto doubted that was the only reason she was given that assignment after Sakura returned a few minutes later in a red bathing suit.  
Normally any team would have been at all day and could still only be half done. Though some would be hard pressed to admit, Naruto's Kage Bunshin had once again been a blessing for the entire team. They had finished in nearly four hours and therefor had time for another quick mission of doing some groceries for the elderly.

Naruto grinned. He hated these stupid missions as much as any other genin, but he needed the money. If only they' ld pay the teams for the individual work every member did .  
He looked up his watch and saw he still had 2 hours left before he would have his first cooking lesson with Hinata.  
He glanced at the schedule and headed back to the place where he had been practicing his fire jutsus two days ago. Once he arrived it wasn't long before streams of fire were flying over the river. Half an hour later a huge explosion followed. Water splashed everywhere, towered by a dome of fire as Naruto's first Grand Fireball hit the surface of the streaming river. Naruto was ecstatic! He was closing up on his rival in record time. Soon the first stage of his plan would be complete. It wouldn't be long before the Uchiha's ninjutsu's held no secrets more to him.  
There was still a long way to go, but soon he would see the downfall of Uchiha Sasuke!

He hurried across the water, his clothes a little singed. That FireFlower jutsu had been bigger then he had imagined. He had been careful not to put too much chakra in the technique and it had still been nearly one and half times the size of what he had seen Sasuke throw at Kakashi during the last time they had sparred against their sensei. He definitely had an edge over the bastard considering stamina and chakra reserves. But it wasn't enough. He remembered yesterday's training mission and the effect it had on his legs. No, he definitely needed to work on that. And as he entered the village over the water's surface again he saw just the way how to do it.  
Entering his apartment he tossed his clothes in the basket and took a shower. He still had fifteen minutes before Hinata would come over. Plenty of time, or so he thought. He was just shampooing his hair as he heard a knock on the door. Quickly wrapping a towel around his waist he opened up and stuck his head through the opening.  
"Hinata! You're early"  
"G- gomen Naruto-kun. I- I didn't think y- you'ld mind"  
"Are you kidding? I don't mind at all! As a matter of fact I hate waiting for people. Come right in and make yourself at home. I'm just gonna finish up my shower. Be with ya in ten minutes."

With that he hurried back in the bathroom, leaving Hinata by herself in the door opening.  
To say the girl was nervous was understatement. She had never even been in a boy's room before. Let alone been in her crush' apartment. Carefully she put her first foot past the door, closed her eyes and breathed deeply before turning to close the door. The room was messier then Hinata had expected. Not that it was particularly messy, it was just that in the Hyuuga mansion everything was perfectly ordered. She kinda liked it this way, it made you feel ... comfortable, like not everything had to be perfect all the time. Putting the bag of groceries on the table she felt the nervousness fade away, making place for curiosity.  
Quietly she moved towards the cupboards, intending to find out whatever she could about her crush by going through his kitchen supplies. She couldn't help but giggle as the two first cabinets were filled with nothing but instant ramen cups. A third one revealed what must have been a month's supply of breakfast cereals. In a way she found it sad however. How could a person live of nothing but ramen and breakfast cereals? On the other hand she felt good that she was actually doing more good for him then she had initially imagined. Further investigation of the cupboards had turned up what looked like a brand new set of cooking utensil, chopsticks, and old bowl which he no doubt used for his breakfast and ramen and some cleaning objects.  
Looking at her watch she noticed only three minutes had passed yet, plus she heard the water of the shower still running, so she still had some time to snoop around.

The room itself seemed to be plastered with post-it notes of things to do. Some having dates on it of over 4 months ago. On the table she found a few pieces of paper which consisted of a training schedule and a bunch of side notes concerning it. She noticed it was packed full. 'iNaruto-kun is certainly pushing himself to the limit./i'  
Looking back at the schedule her heart jumped a beat when she noticed her name written at the current time with a little smiley face behind it.  
The odd thing about the whole thing though was that the side notes seemed to be written in third person, yet the handwriting was definitely Naruto's.

With newfound confidence Hinata headed for the screen that separated Naruto's bedroom from the kitchen. Silently she opened it up and found herself blushing at the sight of Naruto's pajama's on his unmade bed. Aside from a few lingering ramen cups and the messy desk the room was fairly tidy.  
Then she noticed some pieces of broken glass spread around an upside down picture frame. A single corner of it was heavily dented and the frame was coming apart as pieces no longer fit.  
Carefully she picked it up and saw it was his team picture. Hinata was shocked to view the extend of Naruto's problems with his team. Every ninja she knew cherished their first team picture. Even her father had the picture of the three man Hyuuga team he had worked with framed and sitting on his desk.

The sudden lack of the sound of running water abruptly janked her out of the memory. Quickly she put the picture back on the floor and hurried back to the kitchen. Very uncharacteristically she slided on her knees, bending backwards to fit underneath the table and end in front of the kitchen cabinet that contained Naruto's pots. She managed to get a hold of the big wok she needed right as Naruto emerged from his bathroom wearing a white T-shirt and a simple black boxer short.

It wasn't long before the two genin were idly chattering away while Naruto admired Hinata's cooking skill and was even taking notes on to cut everything up and when to add what.  
Hinata was surprised about this as she had always known her golden haired crush to be enthusiastic about new things that interest she had never seen him taking notes about anything.

"You never used to do that," she remarked as she added the pieces of meat to the wok.  
"Do what"  
"Take notes on things"  
"Oh .. well this just helps me remember things better. There's been a lot of things I've been learning lately. Just look at them as study notes," he smiled while writing the time and way Hinata added the meat to the big pot.  
"What kind of things"  
"I'm afraid that if I tell you I will have to kill you. And since killing the heiress to the Hyuuga-clan probably isn't a very smart thing to if I wanna become Hokage, I'ld rather not tell," he winked at her.  
She smiled. "What are you up to Naruto-kun"  
"Secret mission," was his only answer as he raised his finger up to his mouth indicating silence and blinked an eye.  
"Is that why you're training so hard"  
"How do you know about that !" he exclaimed in a panicked fashion?  
"Yo-your training schedule is laying on the table," she squeaked apologetically.  
"Oh," he scratched behind his head, "another dead giveaway huh"  
He sighed. "Just don't tell anyone about my training, please"  
Seeing the disappointed look on his face, Hinata couldn't refuse his request.  
"Of course, Naruto-kun. But why don't you want anyone to know of your hard work"  
"Oh, it's not that I don't want them to know, I just don't want them to know yet"  
"Demo, isn't it bad for your teamwork if your partners don't know what your true capabilities are"  
"Neh, how good does teamwork need to be to weed some gardens or clean a few beaches"  
"Demo"  
"Hehehe, don't worry about it Hinata. In a few weeks it's all gonna be over"  
"I- I just don't want to see you get in trouble, Naruto-kun."

Sakura was just finishing up on her last lap around training field 48. She was heavily bruised and at the end of her breath when she finally arrived at the exit, yet she was smiling. Today had been a day full of good training. Although at first she had stared daggers at her sensei when he told her to swim in the river for the duration of the mission, after a few minutes she had understood his reasons. Swimming in the river's stream had seriously worn out her legs, yet kept her muscles cooled down so she didn't feel stiff afterwards. After finishing the day's last mission she had followed her sensei's advice and headed straight for training field 48. Beating up the dummies had been particularly satisfying today as she wasn't depressed like yesterday but rather ticked of at Naruto's recent comments in the morning. Somehow she couldn't shake it off as easily as the usual stupid things he often said.Apparently it had distracted her more then she was aware of at first, she had been given a couple of nasty bruises before she finally admitted it to herself.

'Why can't I answer that damn question of him! I mean there's gotta be some good reasons I could come up with. Sasuke's definitely the hottest guy in town, he's smart, number one rookie of the year and ''Come on there's gotta be more to it then that. I'm not that shallow. ... Am I ? No I'm not. I just can't come up with it right now. Besides I'm sure Sasuke likes me. ... Why am I so sure about that again?' Sigh 'Maybe Naruto's right. I mean he never talks to me, doesn't smile or looks at me funny. ... But he's soooo gorgeous! Sometimes I would just want to rip his clothes of an- ... Okeeey, enough with the hormones. .. But what if that's just all there's to it ? Or if Naruto's just playing with our heads? What was that between him and Sasuke again this morning?' "I haven't told anyone what happened, but plan to do so again from now on?" "What happened yesterday will never happen again!" 'Coming from my voice that could mean anything from them having wild homosexual adventures on that hill yesterday to ... So Naruto won yesterday. Has he really changed so much?'

On the way home she decided to drop by the library to grab a new genjutsu she could start practicing for the rest of the day. She found a suitable one in a few minutes time. Spending a great deal of her time in the library she knew the place almost as the back of her hand and most of the clerics knew her. Kazumo greeted her from the moment he'd seen her.  
"Ohayo Hiruna-san, I expected you here three hours ago"  
"Hi Kazumo. I was training a little on my tai jutsu in area 48"  
"Ow, so I don't have to smack up any of your teammates for giving you those bruises you got on you there"  
She giggled as Kazumo did some mock stances. "No no Kazumo, I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. Besides it's all part of training"  
"Just as well, I don't think I would have had much of a chance against Uchiha-sama anyway. Hey, you tell him to come by again anytime, okay. As you sure know we've got lots of useful jutsus laying around here, plus if he comes around here more, maybe he'll get us some more visitors"  
"Sasuke came by the library"  
"Sure, he sometimes comes early in the morning. Sometimes that Uzumaki-kid comes along"  
"Sasuke AND Naruto? Together at the library ?" 'Maybe I was closer with the homosexual adventures after all'  
"Yes. Something wrong, Sakura-san"  
"... Uh? Oh no, nothing. It's just that- I gotta go. See ya next time Kazumo!"

'Something's definitely going on here. Sasuke would never hang out with Naruto on his own or for no reason. They're either planning something or Naruto is up to his tricks again. And the way he's been acting lately I'm betting on the last one.'

'How could that dobe have beaten me?' Sasuke pondered as he performed another back kick to the training dummy followed by a dragon kick to another one to finally perform a back flip and plant 2 kunai in the back of a third one.  
'If I even can't beat Naruto in a stupid little race, how am I supposed to ever kill him," the dark image of his brother flashing before his eyes. 'What's up what that dobe anyway. Three weeks ago you couldn't get him to shut his mouth, now he's suddenly this quiet philosopher. It's been days since he said or did anything stupid and he's been staring at me an awful lot during training lately. Could it be that he's ... learning from me? He, can't blame him. Maybe there's some hope for him left,' he grinned as he proceeded to launch another beating on the dummies. 'It was just a stupid little race anyway.'

After walking Hinata back to her family's mansion Naruto dashed back home, determined to use every last bit of his day. At home Naruto started going over the abundant collection of notes on the Uchiha's tai jutsu that his daily morning clones had been keeping. Studying every little detail, imagining the moves in his head and playing back all the fights he had ever witnessed or had with the Uchiha, he began cross referencing in his mind. Looking back at everything in slow motion and seeing some of the moves written down in a nice analised fashion he began to notice some basics. The style seemed to be based around distraction and guiding the opponent into the position you want him to. It seemed to be making more sense now; the way he often occupied his opponents hands by striking some fast, but easily blockable punches or kicks to finally land a hard blow when they couldn't see it coming or react to it on time.

"That would make sense. The Sharingan has the ability to predict an opponents movement, so if the tai jutsu-style could make you guide your opponents movements it would be all that more effective and easily exploitable for them"  
"... hmmmmm, this does make some things more troublesome..."

Maybe Naruto should have gone straight to bed after arriving home, since it seemed troublesome things had a knack of appearing in group. 


	5. Chapter 5

Maybe Naruto should have gone straight to bed after arriving home, since it seemed troublesome things had a knack of appearing in group. There was a knock on his door._ 'Kakashi can say what he want about me losing my people-skills, but I'm seeming to get an encreasing amount of late night visitors'_  
Opening the door he recognised the flurry of pink hair before he saw Sakura's face. Maybe he should've kept looking at her hair, because her face looked much less inviting. His own eyebrowns dropped to a lower position as well. 

"Hi Naruto, can I come in"  
"Well, from the expression on your face I'ld say that's probably a bad idea, but you don't look as if you're gonna take no for an answer either, would you?  
"No"  
"Give me 5 seconds," he said as he closed the door again and created a few kage bunshin to clean his livingroom from all the scrolls, notes and papers that had anything to do with his own mission.  
"Come in"  
If anything Sakura's face had become darker. It probably had something to do with having the door shut in her face.  
"What was that all about?" "Can't a guy clean his place a bit before he receives any guests"  
"It still looks messy in here," she snorted arrogantly.  
"You should've seen it 5 seconds ago"

Forgetting the current conversation, Sakura sat down on a chair and leaned back with a grin. "You know I heard something interesting today"  
"What's that"  
"It seems you and Sasuke have been visiting the library together"  
"Maybe? So "  
"What do you mean "So?" ? The two of you wouldn't hang around together willingly unless Konoha was coming to an end"  
"Uhu. And"  
"And ... and are you gonna tell me what's going on, or should I go ask Sasuke"  
"Who told you?", Naruto asked without giving a moment of pauze.  
"I've got a reliable source"  
"Oh, I bet you do, don't you, you little bookbrain?", he teased with a big sarcastic smile, silently wishing he hadn't sat down himself, so he could've pet her on the head like a good little doggy.  
"Shut up, idiot. I don't have to take that crap from you. Now tell me what you're doing or I'll report it"  
"Report what exactly?" "How about impersonating a fellow shinobi at an official institue? Identity theft? Fraude"  
"Hmmm, that sounds pretty serious, Sakura. Are you sure you can make 'em hard"  
"I've got a chuunin witness"  
"Oh, you mean this guy"  
Naruto now simply leaned back and formed his familiar Ram seal, creating a perfect replica of the library clerc. "I can imagine how the lineup would be." Hands still in the Ram seal suddenly there was a row of copies of both him and Sasuke in the appartment. Next to the clerc the image of the Hokage had appeared with his hand on the clones' shoulder. i"Take your time,kid. Which was the pair that checked out the books and scrolls?"/i "Anything else"  
Now Sakura seemed a little set back. Naruto was ridiculing her and actually having a point. "No ... but even if I can't prove it's you, that would only lead to a deeper investigation because someone would be going around imitating Konoha ninja." Naruto indeed knew that could be trouble, on the other hand he knew this wasn't any time to back down and show doubt.  
"You're still asuming I did something wrong. You see, I've got a library card too, you know"  
"In that case, I think Kazumo will be real happy to know you've been fooling him into thinking you were friends with Sasuke"  
"Oh no! That would mean I'll lose all that extra service, not to mention I'll probably lose my invitation to the annual book ball!" the blonde sarcastically acted with added dramatic motions.  
"Don't think I won't do it, and that there won't be consequences"  
"Fine, whatever. Do what you want"  
"Good, I will"  
"Okay, but just know; I'm a lot better at this then you are"  
"What's that supposed to mean"  
"Nothing, now piss off"  
"Don't talk to me like that!", she yelled as she jumped out of her chair to punch him in the face. He dropped under her arm and threw his body against her waist while grabbing her knees causing her to fall over with him on top of her. He quickly pinned her down by sitting on her stomach and grabbing both her arms.  
"You should really stop doing that. It's annoying and I'm not gonna keep taking it"  
"Get of me you pervert"  
"That not what you'ld say if he sat on top of you." Promptly he changed in Sasuke, including the serious look on his face.  
"Sakura, are you sure you're ovulating? I still have to train to kill .. some guy, so unless you wanna revive my clan I don't have time to play"  
"That's not funny"  
"No ofcourse it's not, do you see me smile? If you do, tell me, cause I don't have time for that either"  
Naruto changed back to himself.  
"He's not like any of that"  
"No? okay let me try again"  
This time he changed with a big cloud of ninja smoke and reappeared as a half naked Sasuke, lying with a single leg between Sakura's, cupping her face with one hand and holding her hand in the other.  
"I love you Sakura-chan, I'm a fool for not seeing it sooner. I hope you can forgive me," he whispered gently in her ear.  
Sakura didn't say anything until Naruto undid the henge.  
"Now that one had you going for a while, hadn't it?", he grinned.  
"Get off of me Naruto, now." she said with nothing but serious anger in her face.  
"I got off of you quite a while ago Sakura, perhaps it's time you got off of him," he said as he stood up and walked to the door. "Now unless there's anything else you want of me, get out of my house." with that he closed the door behind her; leaving the angry kunoichi alone in the streets.

'_Now, where was I? Oh yeah, Uchiha tai-jutsu style. Hmmmm, this could take a while ... well, what did I expect? I knew I couldn't pull this off overnight and it was about time I learned a decent style anyway. Besides, it'll give me some time to think about that damn Sharingan. I'll start on it tomorow, I'll stick to chakra control for the rest of the day_'  
The floating leaf method had now almost become natural to Naruto, so the rest of the evening he had practiced it in combination with the walking on walls technique, over the safety of his bed.

------

5 A.M., Konaha, Eastern Gate, Guardpost #5

"Hey Mobisu, d'you see that"  
"No, what"  
"Someone on the wall at 3 o'clock"  
"I don't see nuttin"  
"On the inside. He's coming this way"  
"Who is it"  
"Can't tell, it's not that Rock kid or Gai anyway. They'ld be here by now"  
"It better not be, Hokage-sama forbid them because they were creating structural damage"  
"He's wearing orange"  
"Baka. What kinda ninja weares orange unless he has a deathwish"  
"Hey, I know him. It's that Uzumaki-kid! What the hell is he doing here"  
"Probably training, what else"  
"He defouled the Hokage monument! I bet he's not up to any good here either"  
"Bah. That's over a year ago, he hasn't done anything since"  
"He has perverted the Hokage's grandson"  
"You never liked the little kid to begin with anyway"  
"He stole the forbidden scroll"  
"The case report reads he was tricked by Mizuki"  
"... I'm keeping an eye on him, he's up to something allright"  
"Baka," Mobisu exclamained as he slapped his collegue against the back of his head, "now get back to work."

---

Training had been a blast today, as Kakashi had been happy with their swift missions yesterday and saw no problem having Sasuke and Naruto spar while he did some tai-jutsu training with Sakura.  
'This is excellent! I've got at least ten minutes to completely beat him to a bloody pulp without Kakashi to interfere! ... But then again, I might as well do some actual training with this oppurtunity and see how much I can predict His movements,' the blonde grinned to himself, which gave him a strange look from Sasuke.  
"What are you smiling about? Thinking how much you're gonna enjoy getting your ass kicked, dobe"  
"No, I was actually imagening what piece of your pride and arrogance I'm gonna strip you of today. And how by the end of the week you'll be nothing more then a sad mixture of fear, hatred and embarrasment"  
That had the desired effect the blond was going for. Sasuke immediately opened up with a Grand Fireball, giving Naruto the perfect chance to hide from view, using a combination of Kawarimi and Kage Bunshin. Another advantage of his improved chakra control was that it gave him the ability to make his clones a further distance away. Now while his clone was fighting Sasuke, Naruto himself was getting comfortable in the canopy of a nearby tree, a slight Henge had made his clothes take on a more natural look blending him better with the leafs. All he had to do now was sit back, relax and keep the Uchiha from facing his direction a lot. Today he felt like playing the Uchiha for all he was worth.  
About four minutes had passed and Naruto was at about his fourteenth clone right now. That included the two extra he created to take note of the Uchiha's moves during the entire battle. This was worth gold, he couldn't wait to try out everything he was seeing right now. He had been trying to orchestrate the battle so that Sasuke showed him exactly what he needed to see: the absolute basics of the Uchiha fighting style, gradually building up to more complicated maneuvres. This was the beauty of Kage Bunshin combined with great chakra control and an enormous amount of chakra and stamina. Occasionally, when he thought he recognised a move from his notes, he would have a clone try to hit him where he theoretically figured there to be a weakness, he was often right. Naruto however never had been one to sit down however and couldn't resist getting back in there so he could finish the job himself.

This was getting on Sasuke's nerves. It seemed like Naruto was everywhere, well it was always like that, but normaly he used to get at least the occasional shot at him. Right now he had hit and hurt nothing but clones or logs, while he was already sporting several bruises and panting. At a certain point in the fight the bastard had even used Kawarimi with a kunai, giving Sasuke a nasty cut on his lower arm. It wasn't that the clones were any trouble for him, the most basic moves and combos seemed to do the trick just nicely, which made it strange since Naruto usually gave him a better fight then this, but then again, he couldn't remember hitting Naruto for sure in this fight.

"Okay guys, that's enough," Kakashi appeared on the stage, reading his familiar orange book.  
"Demo, Kakashi-sensei, I was just about to finish him off"  
Kakashi had walked up to them and laid his hand on Naruto's shoulder; "I saw Naruto, you were great. Not a single hit on you huh? However, you did use a huge amount of chakra, so tone that down unless you want to fall down on the battlefield cause of chakra exhaustion." Naruto smiled and dispelled his clones in a poof of smoke, leaving the field empty except for some stray kunai and the usual leafs, sticks and stones.  
Kakashi looked sternly at Sasuke; "I'm disappointed in you Sasuke. You underestimated your opponent and didn't think defensively enough. Even with the Sharingan you couldn't evade the hits of such weak clones, while you could destroy them so easily. You should have known something was going on.You didn't look underneath the underneath and generally you " -POOF- "sucked." Kakashi had suddenly changed into another Naruto and uppercutted Sasuke a few yards across the training area. Upon landing he was jumped by 4 clones who grabbed his hands and legs, preventing him from using seals or struggling free, each clone holding a kunai at a vital point on his body.

"What was it you said about never reaching your level?", Naruto said as he casualy strolled into Sasuke's view.  
Only a deathglare was his answer.  
"Naruto! That's enough." The real Kakashi had meanwhile chosen this as an appropriate moment to come and check on his students. He was surprised at the outcome, but couldn't deny the brilliant finish Naruto had made.  
"Nice job, although your tactic was a little ... borderline"  
"What ? He gets to spit fire at me, but I can't use a simple Henge"  
"Hmmm, you have a point there"  
"Ha! See? Victory is mine, fair and square!" he shouted as threw a grin at his teammate.  
Meanwhile no one had noticed 2 squirels making their way into Naruto's backpack to only dissapear in a cloud of smoke.

'_I didn't hit him once! ... I DIDN'T HIT HIM ONCE! The bastard was just playing with me! ... How? Did he continuously keep using Kawarimi with his clones? He couldn't have just been hiding somewhere, he always needed to be close by his goddamn Kage Bunshins to create them. He sucks at genjutsu, so ... a Henge to hide somewhere in the middle of the area? No, I should have picked that up with my Sharingan. And why can't I copy that jutsu! It's only one handseal, half the time he doesn't even seem to use it anymore. And how can he make so many! It's a freakin' Jounin level technique which Kakashi doesn't even use unless he absolutely has to, so it should use a huge amount of chakra. Raaaaargh! That's the second time this week this happens! And this wasn't some stupid race, he had the chance to actually kill me_'  
With a grunt the Uchiha lifted himself of the ground, "Hmpf, since when did you start to think things through, dobe?", he mumbled as he put his hands back in his pockets.  
"Only a few days before you started to lose"  
"Can it you two. That's an order." Kakashi sighed and seemed to think things over for a moment. Another heavy breath escaped his nose before continuing. "Okay, here's the deal, I'm not supposed to be telling you this, but in less then two weeks the Chuunin exams are held here in Konoha." Instantly the two boys were silenced and listening to their sensei with full attention.  
"Thought that would get your attention," he said as he continued reading his book.  
"Well?"  
"Well what?"  
"What about the chuunin exams"  
"Oh. I was just thinking about registering you three, but if teamwork has stumbled to this level, you three won't even survive, so nevermind"  
Both boys gave a stern look to oneanother. Eventually Naruto looked back up to his sensei; "Isn't there any other way to become Chuunin?"

----------------------

"You just had to open up your big mouth, didn't you"  
"What exactly did he say this time"  
"Hey, I can't help it none of you has a sense of humour. Besides, you weren't exactly looking thrilled either"  
"At least I kept my mouth shut about it"  
"Yeah, well you ALWAYS keep shut your mouth, so you didn't exactly help there"  
"Will one of you tell me what the hell this is all about"  
"CHUUNIN EXAM," both of them replyed at the same time.  
"What"  
"Two weeks from now, the bi-annual Chuunin Exam wil be held in Konoha"  
"Yeah, and if we're good boys and girls he'll think about registering us"  
"You think he's serious"  
"I think so"  
"Well if he's thinking of just dangling a candy in front of us to see if we'll do a trick he'll be in for a nasty surprise"  
"Do you guys think we're ready"  
"I am"  
"Sasuke-kun"  
"... Yes"  
"Well, if you and Kakashi-sensei say so"  
"Okay, so we finally all agree on one thing. Now can we please get on with climbing this stupid rock? I've got other stuff to do today."

That being said the three continued to climb Mount Assurnibibi, their only protection a 3 foot rope that attached them to their teammates.

-------

'Two weeks until the Chuunin Exams ... He, can't wait. Man that felt good today! Ow yeah, that extra chakra control rocks! I could have beat him while eating some ramen! Am I gonna kick ass when I'm finished learning an actual tai-jutsu style or what! And maybe just a pinch more chakra control and I'll be creating clones by just blinking my eyes! Man, this is gonna rock! Hehehe, maybe after this is over, I'll develop my own tai-jutsu style ... Kage Isshin ... There's a point: what's the Uchiha's style called?'

iAkame Amakaze, a relative new style, a mere 120 years, that was develloped by Uchiha Mantaro, shortly after the Uchiha Rebellion. The style's basic principle is to let the user control his opponents movements by use of natural reactions. It's mainly a offensive style since the Sharingan already gave such a defensive bonus. It is a closed technique, only 4 non-clan members have ever been reported to have learned, three of which dissapeared under mysterious circumstances. The clan claims the technique requires the user to posses a Sharingan, but that claim has been disputed. /i

So Naruto learned later that evening, after 4 hours of rigorous training at the riverside. "Thank God that wasn't all for nothing then," he smiled as he wiped the sweat of his brow, laid the book back aside and stripped down to get a shower.

"Oh, look what the cat dragged in. Have you decided to honour us with a visit today afterall ?" the old man growled, looking sternly while waving his spoon around.  
"Ichira! You break my hearth. What have I done to deserve this ?", Naruto overacted, making him look like a soap opera actor.  
"Where were you yesterday"  
"I was ...", striking a dramatic pause, " on an important mission . Saving the daimyo's brother's daughter's cousin's poolman from a band of hungry wolves and the men that hunted the wolves for their furry tails in Yunchuuri"  
Ichira whistled between his teeth for the impressive little monologue, but still replyed "Liar. I know you were having dinner with that Hyuuga girl," looking away from him, holding his heart as if broken.  
"I swear Ichira, it didn't mean anything! I- I .. just did it to get into her panties"  
The old man shook his head a little as to say he found it a little touchy but he would go along with it.  
"Do you swear that's all there is to it"  
"Yes! Yes Ichira I swear! Once I go steady with her and won't have to be romantic to get some nooky I'll never do it again!"

Ichira's daughter Ayame now couldn't hold her laughter anymore. She and two other regulars who had at least come to bear with the presence of Naruto burst out in laughter, the old man and Naruto following in suit. After the place had calmed down a little and Naruto had taken up his usual place at the counter the Ichira leaned up to him and mumbled quietly "So, you thinking about it.  
"What! No, ofcourse not, Hinata's a friend"  
"Then why not "  
"Ichira, I'm twelve, don't ya think that's a little young"  
"Baka!" TWOK This last reply actually earning him the wrath of The Great and All Powerfull Mace of Ramen! It was only once or twice every month that he beat the blonde over his head with his spoon, since he had to take another one afterwards and clean the instrument of judgement by boiling it in water.  
"Hear the lessons of the Great and All Powerfull Mace of Ramen, for it's wise counsil will protect you in life and see to it that by the end of the day you'll always still have money to come buy more delicious and sustaining ramen. The first lesson of the Great and All Powerfull Mace of Ramen tells you not to be such a pervert, you hormone controlled youngster"  
"Sorry, thought you meant tha"  
"The second lesson," Ichira cutting him off, probably fearing that if he didn't do this right now he would forget where he was going and he hated being called senile by the kid," tells ... that you should reconsider that view. Ninja are not reknown for their enormous lifespan, so they should get BuZy as soon as possible if they wanna settle and raise some little ninja of their own," the wielder of the Great and All Powerfull Mace of Ramen winked at him. "But she's a Hyuuga, I can't just go out with her"  
"Why not"  
"The Hyuuga are probably the most powerfull, stoic and conservative clan in Konoha. Hinata is the main heir. I'ld be like a bum asking for a date with a princess, I'ld probably have to beat a small honour guard in the form of her uncle or cousin or something." "Your right. You do look like a bum"  
"Yeah, but I could always go change first, before taking care off all that other stuff"  
"Into what? I'ld swear I you've been wearing that same jumpsuit ever since you grew taller then that barstool you're sitting on"  
"But I change clothes nearly every day"  
"What? You got another six of those laying around the house"  
"Thirty six more likely "  
"Nani"  
"Yeah ... There once was this garbage container at the Gap, right? "  
-------

'_That dobe beat me! How, no, why is this happening? First that stupid little race and now this! What's going on? What's wrong with me? ... No. What's with this sudden intellectual growth spurt from Naruto? First he get's all quiet and contemplated, now he 's suddenly a wiseguy? None of this makes sense. And now there's suddenly the chuunin exam. What else can go wrong?' Sasuke questioned himself while he was training his kunai throwing.  
'I'ld investigate how Naruto got his shit together so fast, but now with the Chuunin exam coming up, I really don't have any time to waste focussing on that idiot. I need to pick up on my own training. Goddamit Itachi, if it wasn't for you, I'ld have a decent sparring partner right now._'

-------

'Okay, now that he beat Sasuke, he'll probably calm down a little. He proved his point, got to effectively humiliate Sasuke and he's got the Chuunin exam to worry about. Right now, I'm more worried about the way he's using Kage Bunshin. I've heard of a few jounin who used to specialise in fighting with them, but this is getting ridiculous. On a good day I can only make 30 of those, he must've used almost forty or something in that fight by the rate I saw him going and he didn't even look slightly tired. I'll think I'll inform Hokage-sama of this later tonight. Right now those two should have a fairly good chance of surviving the exam, so I'll focus a little more on pinky. Man, she sucks so much sometimes I just feel like punching her in the face. I swear, sometimes I wish I never took this job. Damn kids drive me crazy. Can't even concentrate anymore, where was I? Oh yeah, "He gently squeezed her firm bossom and ..."'

-------

'Two weeks till the Chuunin exam... I don't know if I'm ready... Sasuke and now even Naruto look so eager and ready, but I just don't know. I trust Kakashi-sensei if he sais we are ready, I belief we are, I just don't know if I am. Well, I've got two weeks to prepare and find out, so let's get to it!', the pink haired kunoichi thought as she started her last lap around training area 58.

-------

Sarutobi Sandaime didn't just had the most pleasant day, first he received a report from the Anbu of some recent sightings of his former student, now S-class missing-nin, Orochimaru in the hidden Sand village and afterwards he had been negotiating with some diplomats from the recently erected hidden Sound village concerning their entrance to the Chuunin exams. Right now he was just happy relaxing, smoking a pipe at the floor of the Hokage monument. Life could be grand at times like this, even though something in the back of his head was telling him something wasn't feeling right.  
"Hokage-sama"  
Sarutobi's head dropped down in dissapointment for a fraction of a second, he had been hoping to head over to Konohamaru after this, training with his grandson always was a joy to him. He had sure grown up a lot after meeting with Naruto. Heh, he have to look up that kid sometime soon as well. It's funny how al such thought could occur in such a short time as just nodding your head and turning to say "Yes, Kakashi"  
"I'm sorry but there's something I wish to discuss with you, sir"  
"Is it urgent, dangerous and or classified"  
"Kinda, it might be and not yet, if ever. But mainly it's just interesting or irregular"  
"Believe me Kakashi, if I knew when Jiraiya is gonna publish his new book I would tell you"  
"Sir, if it was that I would have just answered yes, only for the author and I hope not"  
"Hahaha! Okay then Kakashi, what can I do for you"  
"Well Hokage it's just that I've noticed something peculiar about the way Naruto has been making his Kage Bunshin lately"  
"Oh, and what's that"  
"It appears as if he can make them effortlessly, with any amount of chakra he chooses"  
"... Are you sure of this"  
"No, but I can say that for the last few days he has been using at least 45 clones a day at team trainings or missions alone. Earlier today he used about that number when sparring with his teammate Uchiha Sasuke and he didn't even look tired afterwards. I even believe he uses them as training dummies for his tai-jutsu"  
"Forty five huh? At once"  
"Once during a beach cleaning mission. Frankly sir, the kid has a point asking for a more individual wage for the genin on a team"  
Sarutobi didn't even hear or showed care for the latest part of Kakashi's response, instead he appeared deep in thought. There could be a number of explinations for this new talent of Nartuo that the jounin had just described. The Kyuubi and the seal alone could offer dozens of them. Sarutobi had studied the seal for years, the intricate designs, the neverending flow of chakra it possesed and on the other hand contained, the complete contract with the Kami of Death that was hidden underneath, the gateway system that offered the possibility for both chakra's to mix yet seperating both minds and souls, .  
In the beginning the Third used to keep a small red notebook about his discoveries and conclusions about the Shiki Fujin, but by now it had grown out to the size of an entire omnibus. Ever since he had started studying it, he no longer listened to his nickname "the Professor" as he felt he himself could have learned a lot from his own student's student.  
Finally he concluded: "Kakashi, for now you are to regard everything you just told me as an S-class secret. Send Naruto to my office first thing in the morning. If he's any later then 8.30 I'll give you a completely new excuse for your lateness"  
Kakashi nodded and with a bow he once again disappeared.

It didn't take the silver haired jounin long to find his subordinate. Since he didn't appear to be at his appartment the jounin just headed for Ichiraku and found Naruto in conversation with the owner.  
"You know if everything works out between the two of you I might be able to raise my prices a little, earn enough to expand this place and then I'ld finally be able to bring in some new flavours and get the right spices for everything"  
"That's an interesting point you make, but how would I taste all those delicious new recipes with my head hanging above her dad's fireplace"  
"Well, I get more clients when you're gone anyway, so it's a win-win situation for me either way"  
"I'll get you your fancy clients soon enough. When I win the Chuunin exam, I'll show everyone Ichiraku's ramen is the only true breakfast of champions"  
Ichira held his hand up to his chin and struck a thinking pose and then spoke "Could we get a backup plan, just in case"  
"I would consider that a wise option as well," the jounin spoke as he finally made his presence known.  
Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly before swallowing his beef ramen and replying.  
"Why? I just beat the village favorite this morning without a single scratch or sweatdrop, didn't I"  
"You finally got to beat Sasuke? Why didn't you tell me"  
Turning back to his friend Naruto just smiled and said they'ld talk later, making an eye motion towards his sensei, payed his bill and walked of with Kakashi.  
"I'm curious about that too Naruto, little then a month ago you would've told half the village by now"  
"And who would've cared or believed me if I had"  
"That might be a good point, but I don't buy it"  
"Then how about that it was just a sparring match, so it was no big deal"  
"True as well, but not the real answer again, is it"  
"If you're so smart, then why don't you tell me"  
"I guess I could come up with a few theories, like beating him with an unfair high level technique like Kage Bunshin, or cause you tricked him into letting his guard down"  
"Let's get this straight,there was nothing wrong with the way I beat him. He's got eyes that see underneath the underneath without looking, it's not my fault he's too stupid and arrogant to even open them"  
"Well, it couldn't have been a lesson in humility if you're not even humiliating him anywhere. And I really doubt that you're so into teamwork that sudden"  
"Maybe the real question is, why do YOU care so much about me telling or not? Scared I prove the Uchiha or the Sharingan not to be so all powerfull? Or just angry I beat your little precious pupil and wanna nitpick about it"  
"I care because you are a part of my team. So it's necesarry for me as your jounin instructor to get a decent idea of your thinking patern and your abilities in order for me to make decisions that can mean the difference between life and death"  
"You know my abilities and as for my thinking patern, not even I know what I will think of next, and if I did, chances that I'ld tell you are at an all time low"  
"Then how about telling the Hokage"  
"As if you'ld send me to the Hokage over nothing but being rude at most. If there was any law against that the entire Inuzuka clan would have been banned from Konoha centuries ago"  
"Think what you want, you are expected in his office at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning," and with that the jounin dissapeared once again.  
Naruto paused a second to take in and consider what just happened, a moment later a loud "FUCK!" was heared throughout the streets right before Naruto's form was replaced by nothing but smoke and air.

The next day, 7.59 am, Hokage Office.

"Come in"  
"Hokage-oji-sama! Kakashi said you wanted to see me"  
"Hello Naruto. I assume you know why you are here," the old man asked in his causal tone.  
Naruto's heartbeat suddenly gained a couple of beats per minute.  
_'Oh shit, this could be bad. What should I do now? I didn't do it? Nobody saw me do it? You can't prove a thing? They started it? Wait a second. ... I actually don't know this time!'_  
"Not really sir"  
"Odd then that you had to think about it that long. Hmmmm. Anyway you are here because of a rather interesting report Hatake Kakashi brought me"  
_'Oh shit, here it comes. He's booting me of the team. Fuck, I should've just kicked his ass everyday without talking all that shit to Kakashi.'_  
"It appears you have gained quite some talent in the use of Kage Bunshin""I guess so"  
_'Here we go.'_  
"He tells me you easily create up to fourty each day"  
_'This is just about my Kage Bunshin? Oh my god. Thank you. ... I'm gonna kill you Kakashi.'_  
"Actually that's only counting team training and missions. I can easily pull of fourty a minute for a few hours on end"  
"Naruto, 40 a day is a very extrordinary feat already. There's no need to boast", the Hokage smiled.  
"I'm not! Ever since I got some decent chakra control and I could make them on the fly I've been using them as practice dummies for my tai-jutsu"  
This silenced the old man for a few seconds. He now understood what Kakashi meant when he said he could create them effortlessly.  
"Naruto, are you telling me you use a high class jounin level ninjutsu for hours on end and for nothing more then a replacement of a practice dummy"  
"Well, yeah. I mean, why not? They're cheaper then wood, you can set them down anywhere easily and they actually give you some reactions or even pointers"  
"... amazing. But, what did you mean when you said you 'can make them on the fly"  
"I meant since I don't need to use any seals for them anymore"  
This actually caused the Hokage to raise his eyebrowns and choke on his own saliva for a while. He was definately getting too old for this job.  
"Sorry. That's just very..unusual. Would you care to demonstrate that"  
"Sure." Naruto held his hands away from his body, all of his fingers outstretched and without a word or gesture a clone suddenly appeared at his both sides.  
"Very unusual indeed. Naruto, keep them there for a moment," pressing a finger on the intercom he asked his secretay if Hiashi had already arrived. Moments later a tall, pale man with long dark brown hair, wearing a traditional 20,000 dollar kimono and lacking any emotion on his face entered the room.  
"Naruto I'ld like you to meet H"  
"Hyuuga Hiashi, head of the Hyuuga main house, user and protector of the Byakugan and victor in combat over the former Mizukage." Naruto ended with a deep and formal bow. Sarutobi was actually getting a little annoyed. He'ld only spend about 10 minutes with the kid now and this was the third surprise already. He hadn't ever seen Naruto show this much etiquette or respect, ever. He had actually expected him to just wave and say 'Hai, pale guy', or something. Konoha's most unpredictable ninja showed true to his title once again. Hiashi however acted like the same old stoic he always was.  
"You had sent for me, Hokage-sama"  
"Yes Hyuuga-sama. I'm sure you've heard of Uzumaki Naruto. I'ld like you to take a look at him and tell me if there's anything off with his chakra flow"  
"Surely Hokage-sama, you could have called for any Hyuuga to perform such a simple request"  
"Yes, but I needed your absolute discretion and authorithy on this"  
"If you two are talking about Kyuubi or the seal, by all means do so freely. If there's any chance of something going wrong inside my body, I'ld like to know about myself as well"  
"So, he knows now"  
"Yes, he does. Now could you please check him and his clones for any demonic chakra that might have leaked through, besides the normal trickling that should occur every few seconds"  
"Hai, Hokage-sama"  
While Hiashi checked him and his clones for any irregulations, Naruto suddenly asked the Hokage "Normal trickling"  
"Yes, the seal was apparantly designed for your and Kyuubi's chakra to mix. I'm not sure why, maybe to prevent a buildup, or to keep your your chakra system adapted to the demon's in order to build up your resistance"  
"Or maybe the Yondaime messed up"  
"I don't think that's the case Naruto. It's been that way since you were born and you don't look like you're having any ill effects so far. So have a little faith in our previous village leader"  
"Hokage, there's something here that wasn't included in your description or the previous report my father made 12 years ago.  
"What is it Hiashi"  
"A buffer of some sort seems to have formed outside the area of the seal. It's like a new, thicker pathway has formed that catches the trickling demon chakra and releases it to the rest of his sytem in a more steady flow. The amount of demon chakra that's being released however is also far greater then the one reported earlier as well"  
"You said you had been training your chakra control, Naruto"  
"Well everybody told me that was supposed to be a good thing," Naruto half asked.  
"It's alright. I suspect the encrease quantity of Kyuubi chakra is another aspect of the seal. I think it will continue to encrease as your own chakra pathways grow stronger and more resistant. This new buffer, however is something I can't explain. Then again ... Hiashi, are there any other unusual chakra pathways in Naruto"  
After several moments of critical inspection, during which Naruto actually felt pretty much naked, Hiashi answerred there were 3 interloping pathways that seemed a little unstable. These pathways however looked slightly weaker then those in the rest of his body. As if they were still develloping, like those of a newborn.  
"Naruto, is there anything else you can ... do on the fly"  
"Two basic academy jutsu's so far"  
Hiashi not comprehending exactly what the two meant by that concidered it none of his business, this was the Hokage after all, if it was for his ears he would be told. "There is just one more thing. These two on the sides are Kage Bunshin, correct"  
"Correct, Hiashi"  
"But they are not regular Kage Bunshin, I presume"  
"How do you know, Hiashi-sama?" "Their chakra levels are significantly lower. While regular Kage Bunshin would have divided Uzumaki's chakra up evenly amongst the three, right now these two barely register as genin while his chakra levels are at the average chuunin's right now"  
"Well, they were only for demonstration purposes," the boy apologised, "I didn't know what you wanted with them"  
"How do you mean Naruto? You can determine their strength as well"  
"I never thought about that, really. But I can choose how much chakra to put in the technique and how many clones I want now. Took me quite a while though, but I always thought it was stupid to sacrice half of my chakra for just a decoy that can only take one hit before dissapearing"  
"Good, good. Hyuuga-sama, you are free to go. My sencerest thanks for seeing me on such short notice"  
"Very well. Hokage-sama. ... Uzumaki," Hiashi gave a short nod to Naruto before being on his way.  
"I think he likes you," the old man smiled when the door closed.  
"You think"  
"A month ago you would've probably cracked a joke about him checking you out or something. Is Ichira actually right about you and Hinata"  
"What do yo-What is he- It's none of your business old man!"  
"Hehehe. You're right. I just wanted to see your reaction. Now, about your newly discovered talent. What we know so far is you've developped 4 new chakra pathways, one acting as a buffer for Kyuubi's excess chakra that's being mixed with your own. Then there are the three jutsu's you're able to perform without any seals. I'm pretty sure you've put two and two together yourself already"  
"I might. Demo ... isn't it impossible to grow new chakra pathways after birth"  
"Well informed, Naruto. Yes it is. Just like it's supposed to be impossible to perform Kage Bunshin without seals, or choosing how much chakra to put into that technique"  
"What about Henge or Kawarimi"  
"Same thing. All three are supposed to be one hand seal techniques. And yet here you are, pulling of both feats that are deemed impossible in the ninja world"  
"You think it can have anything to do with the Kyuubi"  
"Possible. However, the seal seems to be working like it should. So his influence should be minimal. It could be that the continuous mixing of your chakras has affected the working of your inner coil system somehow, but if that were the case I think there should have been some more drastic changes by now. No, I think we can ignore the Kyuubi factor for the most part. So that leaves us with only one option, doesn't it"  
"... You think I have a bloodline"  
"I think you Might have one. However, it's too soon to tell really. There's also the problem that I've never heard of a clan with such a 'flexible chakra system' or one that didn't need to use seals. Right now it's all just speculation, but I'll be sure to look into it"  
The old man lurked at his pipe another time. Naruto didn't notice the slight shaking of his hands since he was too busy thinking about the new possibilities that were now opening up to him.  
"Hmmm, Naruto, have you told anyone of these new abilities"  
"No, I never thought it was anything special. I've seen plenty of people using jutsu's without handseals before. So I justfigured everybody with the proper control could pull it off"  
"Good, good. I suggest you to keep it that way. There's no telling what certain people would do to gain those abilities"  
"Hai, Hokage-oji-sama."

After Naruto had left his office, the leaf Kage immediately started writing a letter to one of his former students. "Possible Oku gi Sou ken discovered."  
The Hokage figured there wouldn't be any other words necessary. If this didn't bring the toad pervert back to Konoha, nothing would.

---------

AN: Kind of an anti climax right now he?  
Anyway, I didn't really want to give Naruto a bloodline, but his use of Kage Bunshin in the anime just never made any real sense to me when compared to that of high level shinobi like Sarutobi, Jiraya of Kakashi. So I needed an explanation for that besides his freakish stamina or chakra levels.

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. Next one will probably be up soon.


	6. Chapter 6

I'm supposed to write I don't own Naruto or anything related to it/him somewhere, aren't I?  
Well I don't. Think I might own Ichira now though. Like he's ever gonna make any money with that demon kid always there chasing off all the customers. ... Meh, I could always make his daughter a hot piece of 2D, handdrawn, animated as- Man I need a girlfriend.  
----

The day had been dark, cold and mainly wet. The gates of heaven had been open during the entire day, but that hadn't stopped Team 7 from training. It didn't encourage any sane ninja from training outside though. True, Konoha didn't have many of those, but after 16 o'clock most training areas had been empty none the less. Naruto had been keeping himself busy warming up his apartment using a multitude of shadow clones breathing a steady amount of fire from their mouths and training his chakra drill using a log of wood. Yet his main concern seemed to be if his roof would hold on till the end of the constant downpour. Paying a quick visit to the library to see if he could find out anything about the upcoming Chuunin exam. He had left dissapointed concluding that if there was any information regarding it, it wasn't open to mere genin. A sudden knock on his door woke him up from his daydream.

"Hinata?"

Before him stood the Hyuuga heires, future head of the most powerfull clan in Konoha and carrier of a most potent bloodline. Yet no matter how hard he tried, all he could see was a soaked girl, her blue hair sticking to her face and her pale lavender eyes almost staring into his soul. And for a moment they were just staring at each other.

"... Naruto-kun?" That seemed to have awoken him out of his little trance.  
"Don't just stand there! Come in, put that down, get out of those wet clothes, take a hot shower!" he shouted as he quickly took over her bag and pushed her in the direction of his bathroom. Hinata didn't really have a chance to protest and her brain had barely a chance to register the fact that there were several Naruto's breathing fire in the livingroom.

"Ehm Naruto-kun?" she asked from behind the closed door.  
"Yes?"  
"I didn't bring any dry clothes."  
"I'll get you something from my closet and put yours in the dryer. Just tell me when it's safe to come in."

After putting down a change of clothes, Naruto changed into something more comfortable and less sawdust ridden himself and cleaned up his kitchen and livingroom a bit until Hinata reemerged wearing a loose black cotton t-shirt and a blue baggy-looking shorts.

"That's better. Now, you need anything else? A sweater, or want me to turn the heat up?" he grinned at the last comment, giving a quick glance at a nearby clone.  
"N-no, I'm f-fine."  
"Good, good. Now eh," he started scratching his hair like he usually does when he wants to look like an idiot," did we agree on meeting today? Cause I don't remember."

"N-no, I-i just hadn't seen y-you in a while. I-i thought y-you'ld like ...," at this point Hinata's voice had almost completely died away and she had started fidgetting with her fingers again.  
"Are you kiddin'! You're so welcome here any time you like!", he exclaimed hoping to boost her awfull confidence a little.  
"Anyway, it's my fault. I've been so busy training lately I just haven't been thinking about anything else. And I can't just come knocking on the door of the Hyuuga manor late at night, can I?"  
"I-i don't think t-that'ld be a good idea, n-no."  
"So, what's in the bag?"  
"I-i thought we could make ch-chicken yakitori."

While the chicken was broiling in the oven the two teens's conversation continued to a less pleasant subject. "So, Hinata ... I take it your father doesn't know you hang around with me?"

"N-no, b-but he doesn't seem to care m-much what I do."  
"Come on, I'm sure he cares. Who wouldn't care for his daughter?"  
"No, he doesn't. The fact that I'm genin proves it!" he screamed somewhat uncharacteristic.  
Naruto looked a bit shocked at the sudden outburst, but mentally had to admit that he knew that under normal circumstances no Hyuuga heir would be allowed to become an ordinary genin.  
"... Maybe it's a test?", Naruto tried, "You know like ... Hyuuga Nozomi?"  
This time it was Hinata's time to look surprised. "You know about Hyuuga history?"  
"A Hokage shouldn't be ignorant, right?" he glundered. "Maybe he wants you to become strong on your own."  
"I don't think he really cares at all anymore," she said sadly and started fidgetting again.  
"Wel, it wouldn't hurt either way," he tried and gently grabbed her index fingers.  
"And no matter how cute that really is, you should really stop doing that. It makes you look weak and insecure."  
"Maybe I am," she murmured quitely.  
"Then maybe we should see about that."  
"Wh-what do y-you mean?"  
"Simple. Tomorrow the two of us go sparring together."  
"De-demo..."  
"No buts. I refuse to believe you are as weak as you claim to be."  
The rest of the night was filled with idle chatter until Hinata noticed the time and hurried home.

Naruto spent his evening reading back up on some of the Hyuuga fighting style whilst sticking to the ceiling and went to bed.  
The next day after training he met Hinata at the open spot in the forest where she usually ate with her team.  
"Ohayo Hinata, how are you?"  
"Ohayo N-Naruto-kun, I-I'm fine."  
"Good. So, ready?"  
"H-Hai."  
"That doesn't sound very ready to me, but we'll get that later. Right now I'm more worried about cutting our little training cut short by getting hit by your Jyuuken, so let's keep it friendly and just stick to touch contact for now."

After several minutes they had been gradually been picking up eachothers style. Right now Naruto felt he could dominate the match for now and purposely started showing an opening every once and again and didn't feel surprised when Hinata never tried exploiting one. After witnessing the same response several times he suddenly jumped several feet back and called a timeout.

"Hinata, you're either playing with me or still afraid to hurt me with just your fingers. Now if it's the last I can tell you I've had a lot worse then that, otherwise start showing me what you really got already."

After several minutes of fruitlessly trying to work up a little killerinstinct, Hinata suddenly noticed a presence in the bushes.

"Are you sure it's her?"  
"She fits the description, we should take her now," they spoke a little too loud to go unnoticed.

Naruto also seemed to have heard the intruders and broke of the spar with Hinata. Fearless as always he turned around and called out to the two men in hiding.  
"Who goes there? Come out and show yourselves!"

A tall man with spiked black hair, wearing gray blue pants and a black vest, armed with a bo and a shorter, but more bulcking blond man with a dark green shirt, black pants and dozens of kunai all over his body stepped out from the bushes. There was no visible forehead protector on them, but from the way they moved one could see they were definately ninja.

"Hyuuga Hinata? You are coming with us."  
"She's not going anywhere with you two idiots."  
The tall one just looked down at Naruto in disgust.  
"Kid, we can do this easy, or we can do this real easy. So why don't you run home to your momma and stay out of the grownups business."

This only resulted in Naruto dashing forward towards the unknown ninja, echoing a warcry. A few yards before reaching his goal he jumped up, right fist held back to deliver a punch to his opponent. This one simply performed a high kick, hitting Naruto square in the stomach. A split second after impact however Naruto appeared to be nothing but a log of wood. The real Naruto was now standing about 15 yards in front of his opponents.

Behind the smoke that came with the jutsu both genin heard a cry of pain, no doubt coming from the man who badly hit his toe against the replacement medium. Naruto cracked a smile, but noticed too late that the log of wood was rapidly coming his way. Not having enough time to dodge or block Naruto got struck in the head by a 20 pound log of wood travelling at gravity defying speeds. He ended up lying unconscious next to a tree.

"Stop yelling, you crybaby. You'll attract every ninja in the vicinity."  
"Motherf- Goddamn, piece a fucki-. I think I broke my foot."  
"Well, at least you got him," the fat one said chuckling, noticing the unmoving body of the blonde. "Finish him off, he's seen our faces. I'll take care of her."  
The spike haired man finished holding his foot and started limping towards Naruto's prone form, using his bo for support. Hinata had already had taken up a defensive position between the blonde and their attackers.

_'I can't let them kill Naruto-kun! I .. I have to defend him! They're not taking him away from me now.'_  
"I won't let you harm him," she coldly said, imitating her fathers fact stating tone.  
"Yes you will cutie, now step out the way so my partner here can bash in your friends skull."  
"Try and make me," she answerred right before activating her Byakugan.

The short man laughed a simple okay and immediately launched one of his kunai at her head. Hinata simply twisted her head out of it's path without moving her feet and inch. Looking a little dissapointed but wasting no time the nin pulled out three more. Two of them headed for Hinata's torso while a third one strayed away towards the direction of her fallen comrade. Without a thought she jumped towards the stray one, intercepted it and deftly threw it at the black haired nin who had been making his way towards Naruto around her.

"Aaah! Fuuuck! Goddamnit Liang, she got me in the other foot!"  
"I told you to keep quiet. Jeezes, you're such a pussy."

This time however Hinata hadn't just been standing her ground and was dashing for the one she figured to be the long range specialist of the two. This one drew two kunai in his hands to defend himself and engaged Hinata in close combat. The man turned out to be no pushover as he swiftly dodged or blocked all of Hinata's gentle fist strikes. But she had him on the defensive and it would only be a matter of time before she would get in a hit. When that moment finally happened something unexpected happened. The bulcked man suddenly erupted in a cloud of smoke, leaving only his belt of kunai behind. A lot of time to think about it didn't present itself as the other one had taken the oppurtunity to rid himself of the kunai in his foot and returned the weapon to Hinata once again. Dodging the projectile with a simple forward roll, she just got enough time to evade the downcoming bo of her opponent. Sticking to close combat she danced a few minutes with her opponent, who didn't seem to be hindred by any of his feet anymore. When she finally landed a clean hit this opponent as well seemed to erupt in smoke. When it cleared however something totally different then just his weapon was left behind.

"Na-Naruto-kun?"  
"Now that's .. how I want you ... to fight next time .. we spar," said genin told her between his heavy breathing while he was standing bent over, holding one hand over a painfull kidney.  
"I-I-I'm so sorry. Are you alright?"  
"I'm fine Hinata... Nothing to worry about... The important thing is ... how are you feeling?"  
"I-I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to .."  
".. to kick my ass?", Naruto heaved, grinning. That Jyuuken style maybe didn't look all that painfull, but it sure packed a punch.  
"W-why?", she asked, coming to his side, helping him to stand upright.  
"I wanted you to see your own true strength. ... Someone once told me ... real strength .. comes from protecting the people you care about." Putting his left hand on her right shoulder, slightly cupping her neck, he locked eyes with her. His electric blue eyes seemed to glow a little, while hers were still showing bewilderment. "So thank you, Hinata, for protecting me, even against myself," he ended with a wink, but he had meant everything he said. Friends had always been a rare thing in Naruto's life, so there couldn't have been anything that made the young man happier then that there now was another person in his life that found him precious enough to fight for.

Hinata couldn't help breaking eye contact and blushing. She fell back into her old habit of staring at the ground a few inches before her feet. This time however her line of sight at that particular area was blocked by Naruto's crotch. Quickly diverting her attention back to his face she couldn't help noticing the obvious glow in his eyes, despite knowing that he had to be in a lot of pain.

"A-anytime, Naruto-kun."  
"Now, don't tell me you still think you're weak after that."  
"De-demo, you must have been holding back."  
"Only on the clones' teamwork! You think it's easy to pretend to be unconsious and two other people at the same time while hiding it all from a Byakugan? I was doing my absolute best trying to bash your head in with that stick though!" This was actually true. Although the bo had never been Naruto's weapon of choice, during their fight Naruto had pulled every trick he could think of out off his sleeve.

Hinata looked slightly confused at the last comment, until she remembered to include the Naruto-factor to his words and smiled when she comprehended the true meaning behind them.  
"Really?"  
"You think I looked forward to this?", he motioned towards his side.  
"Thank you, N-Naruto-kun."  
"You're welcome. Now, if are you ready for another go?"  
"B-but you're injured."  
"Hey, it's gonna take a whole lot more then a single hit to take down Uzumaki Naruto."

They continued sparring for another hour, Hinata dominiating most of the fights, like any Hyuuga worth their salt would in close combat. Naruto wouldn't have been Naruto though if he hadn't been able to keep her on her toes, especially when he started incorperating some of the Uchiha fighting style in his moves.

Regaining some of their strength back at Ichiraku's, the two agreed on continuing their joined training. Hinata still couldn't believe how strong she really was and Naruto was just happy his new friend finally seemed to be a little more confident in her own abilities, even if it meant their now was a new person on the block that could hand his ass over to him in a straight tai jutsu match. Though it did gave him the advantage of actually having a training partner whose mind he wasn't able to read or command. In the end it was a benificial agreement for both parties and even Hinata would someday outclass him by far, he could always raise the bar a little with the help of some friendly neighbouring shadows.

After finishing his Uzumaki special, saying goodbye to Hinata and another hour of practicing Karyu Endan, the last technique in the book of fire jutsu's, Naruto finally headed back to the library to return both books.

(flashback)

The morning after Sakura had honoured him with a late night visit, Naruto wasted no time and immediately headed over to the Semi-Public Shinobi Library of Konoha.

Once there he changed once more into the image of Sasuke and put on his most evil death glare before marching up to Kazumo and slamming the book down on his desk.

"We need to talk!"  
"Eh, certainly, Uchiha-sama," the librarian gulped.  
"Your office, now."  
He followed the chuunin through a nearby door, and couldn't help grinning when he noticed the cold sweat running down the man's forehead and neck. There was no trace of the smile visible however when the man turned around.  
"Now what the hell do you think you're doing telling people that I, Uchiha Sasuke, have been visiting the library!", Naruto maybe held his voice down a little, but didn't lose any of it's ferocity.  
"I was jus-"  
"Do you want the whole world to know that the Uchiha clan now depends on Konoha's public services in order to get their jutsu's!"  
"I only-"  
"Have you ever thought about how it would look for Konoha if rumour got out that nearly all of the special Uchiha fire jutsu's have become inaccessable? HAVE YOU!"  
"Wel, no sir. But I just-"  
"You only just what? Told that cute little bookbrain Haruna? Think for a second man! Teammate or no, that girl is the biggest blabbermouth in whole of Konoha!"  
"I'm sorry, sir. I-I didn't think it would do any harm."  
Sasuke seemed to calm down a little, with his left hand he held the bridge of his nose, as if in deep thoughts.  
" sigh Whatever, it's fine. Now here's what we're gonna do. ..."

(end flashback)

---

Ever since then he was able to go there in his own form while still being treated as a person. Happy to at least have the luxury not to worry about that anymore, he now faced a bigger problem. After mastering the jutsu list he had set up for himself and getting himself a sparring partner with whome he could train his tai jutsu, he now only needed to worry about one thing.

'Damn those freaking eyes. Now let's see, what have I learned. First the obvious fact that they can copy just about any jutsu they see, nin, gen, tai all the same. Sees through gen jutsu. Can predict tai jutsu movements to a certain extend. When he reaches the three pupil stage, he'll be able to see through my clones. So basically every jutsu gets kinda useless. ... No, that can't be everything, come one Naruto, think.' Suddenly our hero found himself looking back over the bridge in Wave Country.

"_The Sharingan isn't as strong as you make people believe. In our last fight I had Haku observe you. He described to me the inner workings of the technique. First you use your eye to scare me and put me under a very clever genjutsu, making me think you can see the future. Then you made me perform the jutsu you wanted to, only to slow me down at the last seal so you can finish first. Very impressive indeed. However, I found a weakness, namely, you can't copy or hypnotize that which you cannot see."_

'Wel, that doesn't really help. _I_ can't fight what I can't see. ... Not yet anyway. sigh What about that fight with Haku, After all, he did suddenly devellop his Sharingan there. Let's see, we had Haku jumping from mirror to mirror at an insane speed. Destroyed my clones before I even saw the needles fying. Assuke might have been able to, but he still ended up looking like a pincush- That's it! Speed! As long as his body isn't able to react to whatever's coming at it, who cares what he can see?'

Coming to conclusions Naruto headed for the tai jutsu department to see what he could dig up on speed training. He ended up with a copy of "Super Excellent Speed Training" by someone calling himself The Pridefull Green Beast. The texts were kinda long and just plain weird sometimes, but the training in itself looked very thorough. He also liked the reviews it had on the back.

_"The training schedule is utterly insane and only suicidal staminafreaks would ever consider doing 'Gai's True Men Training Tips'"_

_-- Umuino Iruka, Academy teacher_

_"An excellent example of the old school training techniques taken to a new level, although somewhat extreme in certain cases."_

_-- Sarutobi Sandaime Hokage_

_"Completely ignoring all of the text and the fashion advise, I find this an excellent book if you can draw your own conclusion to the suggested trainings."_

_-- Mitarishi Anko, Anbu_

Taking the book home, Naruto immediately went over the instructions on how to make his own weigth seals. He however stayed far away from the suggested 50 pounds per leg. He tried that the first time and found himself pretty much glued to the ground. Whoever this 'Green Beast' was, he had to be a monster! Which suited Naruto just perfectly fine.

------

9.00 AM.

Konoha, little stone bridge on the west side of town.

12 days from the Chuunin Exam.

'Where is Kakashi-sensei? Can't he just show already, while Naruto isn't here yet. For once I want to be able train alone with Sasuke-kun. Kakashi has helped me a lot with my tai jutsu lately and I want to show him how much I've improved.'

'Where is that dobe this time? Two days ago Kakashi gave up some bullshit reason why he didn't show, now he's nowhere to be seen. I swear if that dobe causes Kakashi to change his mind about the Chuunin exam, I'm going to kill him.'

After several hours of waiting the jounin sensei of Team 7 finally decided to show up in his usual fashion. "Ohayo, sorry I'm late. The dry cleaner had shrunken my uniform and I had to get a request new one at the Hokage Tower."  
"Liar!", the kunoichi exclaimed.  
"He's right actually, Sakura" the blonde who had suddenly appeared in a similar fashion beneath the latern pole Kakashi currently sat on. He didn't have any clothing on his torso which looked heavily sweated and was rubbing himself off with a towel. "The chuunin in charge of the uniforms didn't believe he was a jounin when he showed up there in a regular T-shirt and kaki shorts."  
"And where were you!", the pink haired ninja now demanded.  
"Same dry cleaner. So I just took the liberty of taking our shrunken clothes to the orphanage. They just had gotten coke and ice cream, so a bunch of the toddlers puked on me and I had to go back to my appartment to change."  
"Liars! Both of you!"  
"Whatever. So Kakashi, you got us a decent mission while you were at the Hokage Tower?"  
"Erhm ... No, I just got my uniform and then hurried to meet you guys."

--

"Hey, Iruka! Got any C's left?" Naruto asked from inside the doorframe, entering the briefing room.  
"Hai Naruto. Now you know you just can't have your pick of the litter when you're always the last team to come get missions."  
There was a brief poof of smoke and suddenly the silver haired jounin found himself clutching the back of his head in pain.  
"Ah, what's a genin to do, he?" he winked at both his former academy teacher and the Hokage. "We'll just take whatever you've got left, like always."  
"Happy harvest time then. Farmers on the outskirts of town will be needing your help hauling in the crops for the next three days, reinforcements will be send tomorrow" tossing him the scroll.  
"Three days of harvesting? Come on Iruka. Chuunin exam is coming up in less then two weeks. I'm short on time for training already," Naruto complained while reading the mission scroll. The rest of the team rarely said anything when receiving missions. They had learned when it came to that, Naruto was definately the better negotiator.  
Finished reading the scroll Naruto smiled. "I don't guess there'ld be a bonus for finishing early?"  
"Hehe, fat chance of that occuring Naruto. Last year we send 2 genin teams and they still neaded an extra day."  
"Yeah, let's just say, hypothetically, what if I did it in .. one day?"  
"Hahaha, Naruto, you can't be serious to do 15 field-"  
"Then I'm sure your efforts would not go unrewarded, Naruto," the Hokage interupted.  
"Yosh, I will do all of this in 24 hours, not including travelling time. Expect me back tomorrow at 16.00 hours. If I fail I will run as many laps around Konoha as I am hours late!"

Kakashi, Iruka and Sarutobi looked shocked and sweatdropped in certain fear as they heard Naruto making the bet with himself. This sounded scary indeed.

--

"Hey dobe, what the hell did you think you were doing back there," the raven haired boy asked ass the team was trecking across the road.  
"Doing us all a favour, what did it look like? Idiot," Naruto bit back.  
"It looked like you were acting as a baka once again. Nobody can do all of this in one day," the kunoichi answerred as she was looking over the list of crops. "Didn't you hear Iruka, last time it took 2 teams 4 days."  
"I heard. That means it would take one team 8 days or one person 24."  
"See, there's no way we can do it in just one day."  
"So much brains behind that big forehead and no idea what to do with it," the blonde muttered.  
"What?"  
"I said SO MUC-"  
"We're here," the jounin interrupted. Taking his eye of the book he pointed to a nearby farm. "That's farmer Takeda's place. You can start over there. If there's any trouble, I'll be inside."

'Figures' all genin thought.

As soon as they gotten some necessary instructions from the farmer Naruto got to work creating 22 clones and threw himself at the work. It was as if a massive orange swarm had infested the field and less then two hours later he left his teammates to fend for their own while he made his way to the next farm. From their position his teammates could just see carrots flying across the field.

It wasn't untill a few hours later that they finally caught up with him 3 fields further down the list. Naruto kept working at a devilish pace untill nightfall, counting every single tomato, carrot and apple down the way. Spending the night at the Junpei farm the farmer didn't hide his admiration for the young shinobi's hard work while mainly ignoring the blonde's teammates. They didn't exactly took well to this, but couldn't do much about it while they were guests at the man's house. Kakashi just stayed out of the conversations and read his Icha Icha Paradise 12, occasionally throwing a look at Junpei's daughter Taki.

Junpei's mood wasn't put down when Naruto fell asleep at the table, since for a moment it seemed as if the little guy was going to eat more then he had hauled in. The farmer simply moved him to the couch while the rest of the team was sent to the hay attic.

The next morning he was awoken by their host at first daylight. After enjoying a hearthy bacon and eggs breakfast Naruto once again threw himself at the work as if possessed. The group of orange harvesters had grown in numbers by half it's original amount to make up for the time he lost at night. Trying to do everything in 24 hours didn't just mean he had to encrease work rate, but he also suffered a higher sleep/work time ratio. At noon, 2 hours before deadline, several farmers had assembled near the last field. Bets were being made on the outcome and several farmers asked the contracting ones where "they could get one of those". When Naruto showed up he was breathing and sweating like an ox. None the less, his eyes showed nothing but determination and a crazy little grin showed on his face. Grabbing the two scythes he was carrying by his arms he once again formed his trademark jutsu. Ten clones, all wielding dual scythes shouted their warcries as they ran towards the wheat and started whirling over the field like miniature tornados. The rest of Naruto's troops now calmly arrived on the scene and started picking up the remains and tying it together at a slow but steady pace.

----

"Really Hokage, you can't seriously presume that even Naruto would be able to do all that in a single day."  
"Now, now, Iruka-san. You especially should know not to underestimate the little guy."  
"Yes, but I mean, not even Gai or his team would have made such a statement."  
"If Naruto says he can, we should at least give him the benefit of the doubt, don't we?"  
"Eh, I guess so."

Time seemed to fly for the two men as they awaited team 7 while swapping stories about Naruto and Konohamaru. Both wondered as well what the upcoming Chuunin exam would bring, though the old Kage did show certain signs of worry when the subject got brought to the table. Iruka didn't ask and Sarutobi didn't tell. Their was no conclusive evidence for anything yet, so their was no need for the majority of Konoha's shinobi to get paranoid. Paranoia usually only brought more harm then good. So instead the old man just joked on how Naruto would probably win the finals using his sexy no jutsu. The memories of the technique spontaneously brought both man to scratch the ends of their nose. A knock on the door brought both men back from their trip down memory lane.

"Enter."  
"Team 7 reporting a succesfull mision, sir," Naruto saluted with a foxy grin.  
"Very well," Sarutobi laughed, nudging Iruka in his side," Now, would the three of you wait outside while we have a word with your sensei."  
Sasuke rolled his eyes before turning around for the door, while Sakura threw an angry look at Naruto, who in turn never knew since he chose that exact moment to turn the other the other way.

"Report."

---

"You idiot."  
"What now, Uchiha?" Naruto responded with an annoyed voice.  
"Don't you realise you've probably totally disarrayed their shedule?"  
"Their shedule?"  
"Everybody knows that a few weeks before the chuunin exams, selected genin are put on low risk missions."  
"Oh no! So now we might get even more low risk missions!" Naruto sarcastically dramatized, waving his arms in the air to be sure he was overacting enough for even Sasuke to understand. "Maybe tomorrow they'll have us picking muschrooms with the Everglade pixies, or even worse ... washing the elderly," he continued, making sure there was ample dread in his voice.  
"Dobe."  
"Loser."

The two threw eachother one last look of disgust before finally deciding to ignore eachother.

Several minutes later their jounin sensei came through the door, and told them they could go in before taking his leave.

"Ah yes, team 7, my apologies for the wait. There were some important matters I needed to discuss with your sensei. Hmmm, where were we again? Oh yes, congratulations on a job well done. Sasuke, Sakura, here are your cheques," he said handing them both their respectives envellopes, "and Naruto, here's your part."

Taking over the sealed container, the blonde was surprised of its weight. The Hokage noticed the look of surprise on his face and just gave him a silent nod.

After their debriefing all teammates went their seperate ways. Naruto made sure he was alone before taking a look at his paycheck. 'Oh my .. Oh man! Hohohoh. So sweet! This must be ... Niiice, 22 days of pay! I love that old man! And the Green Beast wasn't kidding when he said hard work does not go unrewarded. These things are killing me though,' he thought shaking both of his legs a little, 'and I gotta add another 5 pounds tomorrow.'

After the logical visit to the bank, making sure he asked for his receipt as proof of the transaction, the next stop was offcourse Ichiraku's. He was happy to see Iruka was waiting there for him as well, as he had been too distracted to ask him out for ramen. The fact that he wasn't really hungry since miss Tanaka wouldn't let him go before till he finished half the pumpkin pie she had made hadn't helped either. Judging by the enormous smile on the old chef's face, he had already heared the news.

"So, I hear you finally started working the way you have been eating all these years."  
"That's supposed to be classified information, old man. Who t-"  
"Sorry Naruto, nothing personal, just business," Iruka turned around on his chair, grinning over a steaming hot bowl of a rare beef-chicken ramen mix.  
"Damn crooked shinobis," the soon to be broke again genin muttered.  
"Yeah yeah, whatever. Now hurry up with the money. The sweet, sweet money. Muahaha. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ichira seemed to be enjoying his role of evil, money loving ramen Don a little too much for sanity's sake, when Naruto got presented with the real bill though he suddenly realised he might not have been playing much at all. Relieved of nearly a third of his sudden riches the young genin sat down in conversation with his friends.

When Iruka finished his bowl both shinobi left Ichira's company and took a digestive stroll through Konoha.

"So, Naruto. I take it that chakra excercise I showed you has paid off."  
"Are you kidding me? I couldn't have possibly done last mission without all that extra control I gained."  
"Great! That's great. Anything else you've learned lately?"  
"Besides the fact that Uchiha is a sore loser? You know, a little this, a little that."  
"Hahaha, you sure you just haven't been acting like a sore winner?", the chuunin joked.  
"He, well, yes and no. But come on, who wouldn't like to rub it in that guy's face?"  
"I know what you mean. Just don't overdo it. You know how important it is to be able to depend on your teammates."  
"Hai, hai. I know. It's just that sometimes those two piss me off so much I'ld just like to shove kunai up thei-"  
"Ok, ok, I get the point. Oh well, guess I better start preparing tomorrow's class. Later Naruto, and stay out of trouble."  
"Later Iruka."

---

_'Stupid dobe, with his stupid shitload of chakra. Nobody should be able to pull off the crap he did today. And why won't Kakashi teach me that Kage Bunshin technique when Naruto just about uses it every hour of the day? "It's a jounin level technique, you'll learn when you're jounin." Bullshit. Idiot's always getting special favours. He's not even supposed to be graduated yet and now he's ... he's running on the village wall? Goddamnit, does he think he can get away with anything he wants! I'll show him. I'll show 'em all once I've develloped my third pinwheel! And once I've done that, I'll show Itachi what it means to betray the Uchiha clan!'_

Sasuke launched a massive combination of kicks and blows on the wooden dummies in his personal training area, finishing with a fire jutsu that left the majority of his "opponents" smouldering in flames.

"Oh great going genius. Now I'll have to replace these things," the raven haired boy sighed before returning to the confines of his empty mansion, bending himself over the family scrolls.

---

Sakura had been bathing for the last hour, trying to scrub all the dirt from her and making sure that any possible bugs that might still be on her were definately drowned. On one hand she had been glad that Naruto had left her and Sasuke alone for the greater part of the past days. The downside was that working in the dirt, pulling out carrots wasn't exactly the most romantic alone-time she could have gotten. Even sleeping so close beside her crush in that attic had lost it's attractivenes when several big spiders had started crawling up her legs.

So many things just hadn't been going her way the past weeks. Naruto giving her lip, Sasuke bad mouthing her abilities as a kunoichi, the store had stopped selling her shampoo and even Kazumo had been acting different lately. Her favorite library clerc hadn't even looked surprised when she had told him Naruto fooled him by pretending to be Sasuke. And now she couldn't even vent her frustration on her least favorite teammate anymore. Beating those animated dummies just didn't have the same satisfying effect.

* * *

AN: My apologies for the weak ending of the chapter. Felt it was all going downhill since the start of the mission. Think I might do one more bridge scene next chapter and then start time hopping to the chuunin exams.  
For those of you who wonder about the clone Hinata hit with a kunai and not dissapearing: I didn't feel like typing out how he had anticipated her trying to immobilize it and made it armor his other leg with tree bark.  
And don't worry, I'm not gonna give our hero a funny haircut. Thought about giving him some new clothes with the money, but who actually imagines Naruto in anything else but bright orange that screams "kill me!" ?

Dragon Man 180: Dude, you're such a freak. I don't think I've actually read any fic you haven't reviewed yet. And believe me when I say that's a sadly high amount.

nantukoprime: like the note on Henge, thought about it, but I always figured the user would keep the same weight, thus eliminating any possibility of flight. Tempting though. ... shadows don't weigh that much, do they?

DragonBard: sorry man, just can't seem to get the lay out right, tried double paragraphs, break lines, combinations of both and just plain editing. Trying it out in Word format now.

Everybody who mentioned something about the Rasengan: guys, I'm clearly describing a cone shaped drill, right? If it wasn't clear in the fic, I'm sorry. Every stage of the Rasengan we've seen in the anime or manga was sphere shaped. It consists of chakra emenated from the hands, yeah. So does the Chidori, Jyuuken style and Kabuto's chakra scalpel.

On another note, since I've been getting enough comments about spelling or grammar, everybody who wants to beta-read is welcome to apply. Though it might take quite a while before chapter 7 might somehow make it's way from my brain to my hard disk. If anybody wants to clean up all the errors they've found so far, leave a note and I'll send you my email address. (To think I used to be really good at english in high school. Shows what they know.)


	7. Chapter 7

Legal disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything related to the series. Neither do I own a ramen stand, a kunai or my little brother's headband.  
Author's Note: the following chapter is partly inspired by a review of "siberstreif". Therefore if some readers halfway start wondering what the big deal is with team's reaction to Kakashi's last training session, try to get a hold of your inner 13 year old. I presume you didn't have Internet, cable or weren't "ripe" for your age in the things of the flesh.

Naruto was currently training his abs, biceps and chakra control by sticking to a stone ceiling with his fingertips and raising his legs while flaring the chakra drill on and off the beat on his walkman. He only wore one earpiece so he could stay aware of his surroundings. The other one was tucked away in his jacket with a sound muffler on it. Right now his main problem wasn't hiding the sound from his music, but preventing his teammates from hearing his groans. He was now up to sixty pounds per leg and definitely wouldn't mind if Kakashi came in early today. Which was just a nice way to say an hour or two less late.

The technique had been coming along nicely the last few days. Yesterday he was finally able to raise it fast enough to cut a clean, inch deep hole through wood in the time it took a punch to connect. He thought about the results it should have on flesh and didn't know whether to be pleased or disgusted by the no doubt bloody jutsu he had created. Another inconvenient consequence was the inability to practice the technique in combat with an actual opponent. Sure he could try it out on Uchiha and call it a training accident, but he figured no one would take kindly to him brutally maiming his teammate for life.

"Neh, Sasuke-kun, do you think Naruto's ever gonna act normal again?"  
There was only a small grunt from her teammate in reply. The kunoichi continued talking as if she understood whatever he meant perfectly though.  
"I know, if he keeps acting like he does now we'll consider it normal soon enough. But he's become such an asshole lately. Always acting like he's so big and righteous all the time. And then when there are other people around he acts like there's nothing going on. He's always been so annoying and now he's twice as bad. Sometimes I think back to Wave Country and just wish you'd have let him die."

Suddenly the girl felt herself pushed to the floor by her teammate as a piercing screech accompanied by the loud shouting of someone nearby echoed through the air followed by a splash. When silence returned to their surroundings Sasuke let go of his teammate and cautiously walked over to the far side of the bridge.

"Dobe? What are you doing there?"  
"I _was_ trying to practice my chakra control under the bridge until some bitch distracted me enough to lose focus," a heavy breathing - and once again nearly half naked – Naruto answered.  
"You baka! Have you been training underneath us all the past da-..." Sasuke suddenly halted his question as he saw his words reached nothing but smoke and air.  
"YOU!" the raven-haired boy heard behind him. Turning around he saw both his teammates trembling; one in anger, one in fear.  
"Naruto! I... I didn't..I did-"  
"RUN!" he ordered her in a primal voice, pointing to the road behind her.  
Seeing the pure look of anger on his face, she knew there was no room for arguments or apologies, so she just grabbed herself up as fast as she could and got herself out of there like a gazelle that just spotted a leopard. Turning his attention back to the blonde, Sasuke figured he was trying to calm himself down using the old "counting back from 10" trick.  
When he reached 5 however the boy was shocked to see his teammate pull out a kunai and before he could react the blonde hurled it in the direction of the running kunoichi. On 3 Kakashi suddenly appeared between the two and seemed to effortlessly intercept the flying projectile without even taking his eye of his book. The blonde frowned but kept counting. At 1 Sasuke could only make out a single seal and a faint whispered "Kairyouhin Kawarimi no jutsu". As Naruto's form went up in smoke he looked back at the fleeing girl just in time to see the blonde appear less then a yard in front of her and deliver a mean punch right in her gut.

Sakura doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach, trying to gasp for breath. She then felt, more then saw, Naruto bending closer before whispering in her ear.  
"Stupid, shallow, blind, ungrateful fan girl bitch! I'd shove a kunai up your spine if I didn't know any better." With that he just walked back towards the bridge

When he passed Kakashi he casually asked him to return his kunai.  
"Why? So you can try to kill another one of your teammates?"  
"Hey! Unlike _some_ people here, I don't wish death upon my team members. No matter how much I dislike them."  
"Really? Sure didn't look like that just a few seconds ago."  
"Then maybe you should look _underneath the underneath_, like you like to put it yourself, _Sharingan_ Kakashi," Naruto responded.  
"And what would I find there, Naruto-kun?" the instructor smiled sarcastically.  
"Only the fact that anybody with some decent _depth perception_ would have noticed that my arc was way too high and by the time it reached her it should have been off by a yard to the left."

The silver-haired jounin seemed to ponder upon this for a moment before sending Naruto off to Sasuke. Meanwhile Kakashi went to check up on Sakura who was leaning against a tree for support.

"Great going dobe, that stunt might have just cost us our tickets to the Chuunin exam."

"Shut up asshole, " was his only reply as he turned around to face the two remaining members of his team. When Kakashi arrived he just grunted a "follow me" and headed to the outskirts of town. All three genin did so in silence. After 10 minutes they finally seemed to have reached their destination. Everyone except the jounin suddenly came to an involuntary halt as they read the sign on the house.  
'He's got to be -'  
'He can't be -'  
'What the -'

"You guys coming or what?" Kakashi told, more then asked them as he entered "Wu Long's hot baths".

The lazy eyed ninja must have been a regular at the place since the owner knew him by name and he was able to give him some lip without being thrown out when the man made an odd comment about his guests and the fact that the jounin had asked for a single group dressing room. Once they had all entered he locked the door.  
"Now strip."   
The genin just looked as him and each other funny.  
"What? You think I'm kidding? I said strip, now get to it!"  
There wasn't a trace of humour on the man's face. He just stood there arms crossed, raised in his full posture with his normally lazy eye now looking awfully serious.

'_This isn't good. I probably shouldn't have made fun about that eye patch. Now think Naruto, think! Okay mental checklist. A: Kakashi's a pervert. B: he asked us to get naked. C: one of us is a girl. D: This is really awkward. Oh, and E: We hate each other. ... Okay, since there's not much input from those two let's go with D for now._'

"Ehm, Kakashi, this is really awkward."  
"What is? Don't tell me that despite apparently wearing the same clothes everyday you've never taken them off. Now get out of them. That's an order."  
"What about Sakura?" Sasuke now offered.  
"I think Naruto would agree if I said kunoichi are to be treated as complete equals in the ninja world."  
_'Shit. I was afraid he'd say that. Com' on there's got to be something I'm missing. I know there is! Hmm, Sakura is being mighty creative just standing there looking uncomfortable. Up to me again I guess.'_  
"Sure. There just as likely to stick a kunai in your throat as anybody else."  
"See? Now get to it," the jounin ordered in an intimidating way.

"Fine," the stubborn blonde teen boldly stated, sure that the point of this whole experience wasn't to see each other in another way from a physical point of view.  
'_Come on, come on. What am I missing here? Bath house, dressing room, clothes hangers, ..._' his eyes scanned the room as he got rid of the T-shirt. '_Towels! There's got to be towels around here somewhere._'  
His eyes darted across the room as he slowly bended down to remove his sandals. There wasn't a trace of any of the white, fluffy, cotton items anywhere. Not on the racks on the right behind Sasuke, the bench or even the inch open closet in the wall to Sakura's left. '_Genjutsu. Has to be genjutsu. Motherfucker. He knows I'm crap at that._' He sighed in annoyance as he finally dropped his pants and picked them back up from the floor.  
"Those too, Naruto," the jounin said, motioning to his black boxer shorts.  
"Like hell I'm going to be the only naked person in the room."

The two got engaged in a small staring contest until Kakashi broke the silence.  
"Fair enough. You two, get to it."  
As soon as the jounin had broken eye contact Naruto took advantage of his distraction to form his hands in the Rat seal underneath his folded clothes. '_Okay, here goes nothing. Kai!_' Nothing. He tried again, concentrating on several parts of the room. Still nothing. Twenty consecutive tries didn't even reveal a hint of the desired items. '_Shit. Not that either huh? Damnit, I'm running out of options here._' He was running out of time as well. As soon as their sensei took out what he claimed were their entrance tickets to the Chuunin exam and threatened to bring them in real close proximity to the small fire jutsu he had concentrated on the tip of his finger the Uchiha's clothes practically went flying across the room. At least Sakura seemed to brighten up at the occurrence. Naruto just let out an amused sigh at the sight of his rival in old fashioned, little boyish, baby blue underpants. All eyes were now on her. Sasuke clenched his fists, obviously resisting the urge to personally rip her clothes of her. Slowly she dropped on her knee and started untying her shoelaces. Her hands were shaking a little and it was clear she had imagined her first time getting naked with the object of her affection in a totally different manner. After she had carefully put away her combat boots she started picking open the buttons on her red Chinese style dress one by one. Underneath a white sleeveless top revealed itself. As she went to one of the clothes hangers on Sasuke's side Naruto caught the little unnatural motion of her hand when she opted to touch the towel rack. But then her face betrayed disappointment.

'_So, she finally decided to join us. Bout freaking time she realised that just looking all sad and ashamed wasn't going to work here. So now what? No genjutsu, nothing in plain sight, no more clothes and almost out of time_.'

"_You have until noon to each get one bell. When the time's up and you haven't got one, it's back to the academy for you."_

'_Nha,_' the blonde tried shaking the ridiculous thought out of his head, but for some reason it wouldn't leave. '_No really, come on. We know he's a perv, but that would be plain stupid. It's idiotic. It's sadistic. It's sexist and sarcastic. ... It's so him. ... Goddamnit, I hate you Kakashi. You stinking lazy pervert._'

Meanwhile Sakura was now standing back next to Naruto in nothing but her pink cotton panties. "What are you looking at!" she bit at Naruto when she noticed his gaze.  
"Don't flatter yourself; the overkill on pink would stop any man from further ideas. I was just noticing you've finally started eating and working out.," he retorted, putting his eyes back in front.  
"Whatever, pervert," she said, covering her zones that might be of interest to certain unwanted parties present.  
"I can hear you're all done. Now lose the rest of it."  
"Erhm, Kakashi?"  
"What is it now, Naruto?" the man asked, obviously losing his patience.  
"You wouldn't be holding 2 towels behind your back, would you?"  
An upward motion made it's way across the teacher's facemask, one that all his students had learned to comprehend as an ill omen.

"No."  
The genin sweat dropped.  
"I figured it was getting old. However..."  
Reaching behind his back he suddenly conjured up one giant beach towel.  
"Erh ... can we vote on this?"  
"No."  
A general disappointed muttering was heard.  
"One towel. One hour. Two rules: no weapons and no property damage. That includes completely filling the room up to the ceiling with Kage Bunshin: weak flooring", he illustrated by shifting his weight on the floor, making the wood creak.

Round 1. Fight! (Sorry, we just got Tekken 5)

Sasuke didn't waste any time and immediately opened up with a forward jumping kick. Kakashi easily caught the offending leg with his left hand, the Uchiha however twisted his body with the captured leg as rotating axis and now brought down his right leg towards his teacher's head. Before he could connect however the boy had already been thrown across the room, ending in a crouched position on the wall. During Sasuke's brief flight Naruto had already filled in his position on the offensive front. He started with a leg sweep, which Kakashi easily sidestepped and rewarded with snap of the towel to the blonde's chest. Naruto's offence wasn't so easily stopped however and he charged in once more, this time aiming for the man's abdomen. The cotton cloth intercepted his fist and Kakashi sent him sailing towards Sakura. As the two ended up on the floor in a somewhat embarrassing but mostly annoying position for them, Sasuke once again went flying over their heads, this time going with his extended version of a roundhouse kick.

The fight went on like that with genin flying through the room for about half an hour. It was getting clear that this approach was getting them nowhere. Naruto had never been much of a close quarter fighter, as far as his teammates knew anyway. Sasuke obviously was stealing the show again with his strange twisting and turning combat style. Most amazing might have still been Sakura however, who for once actually seemed involved in the straight tai jutsu show off between the four.

'_Wait a second. We're all just straight on attacking. And for nothing but one stupid oversized towel he wants us to share. There's got to be more to it. Something that'll gets us all what we want. And we definitely don't want to be standing with our naked asses to each other. Stupid pervert. Wouldn't surprise me if he got this from one of those disgusting orange books. ... Damnit, teamwork it is then Besides, I need the credit.._'

"Yo Sakura, why don't you get back to doing what you did best?"  
For a moment she threw him a dirty look as if saying, "What's that supposed to mean?" but when he suddenly changed his appearance into hers, she nodded her head in understanding.  
"Sasuke-kun. You look so great sticking to the walls!" he now said, utterly disgusted with himself.  
The raven-haired boy just nodded, performed henge and now approached their teacher in a more vertical manner. Kakashi looked unfazed as he was attacked by a sudden horde of half naked overly pink girls. Two jumped at him from the side, a simple fast wave from the towel revealed they were bunshin. There were still 5 others though. The one in the back had to be Sakura; he figured the angriest looking one on the wall to be Sasuke. That just left Naruto. A wide arcing kick as a response to the joint triple attack the combined Sakura's in front of him revealed the left one to be the only solid one. As he came to a halt colliding with the door and the smoke of the dispelled henge there was a grin visible on his face.  
"What are you smiling about, Naruto?"  
"Game over Kakashi-sensei."  
A sudden orange streak moved across the room, from Kakashi's right into Naruto's hand.  
"Kage Bunshin hiding in the regular Bunshin. Key, please." He held out his other hand, as he waved with Icha Icha Paradise 5: "Make out Mountaineering".  
The jounin quickly padded his left rear pocket to confirm Naruto was actually holding the real deal. When he found nothing, he was quick to give in to the genin's demands. "Sure, sure, just don't damage it. Here," he said hurriedly throwing him the key to the dressing room. "Now, put it gently on the floor and walk away slowly."  
"Sorry sensei, but you know I have to try it out first," he grinned, getting up and turning to face the door. The rest of the team swore he was moving so slowly they could actually see time fly by. Most of them didn't mind though. When the click of lock meeting key was finally heard and Naruto was reassured Kakashi suddenly moved so fast the blonde didn't even notice his bargaining chip escaped his hand until he turned around and saw the two reunited in a tight embrace.

Leaving the disturbing scene behind him for what it was he opened the door and called for the owner to bring them 3 extra towels.

---

When all 4 members of Team 7 finally made it into the hot spring, Kakashi however still wasn't wearing his most worry free face.  
"Now, will one of you tell me why my subordinates recklessly attack each other outside sparring matches?"

None of the three seemed eager to answer.  
Naruto knew he hadn't handled the situation the politically correct way, but since when did anybody on Team 7 care about that?  
Sakura realised that saying you wish one teammate was dead to another one wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do.  
Sasuke on the other hand only worried about how this would affect his chances at getting in the Chuunin exam. He _needed _to get in. He _had to_ make Chuunin. He was already behind his brother.  
"No one's talking, huh? Fine. I guess I can always make you guys walk home in that towel. And then we'll have the next month and a half to work on teamwork while the rest of the genin take the exam. That also means that there will be more then enough D-rank missions for us to go around ... for the next 6 months."  
'_Nononono, we can't have that. I need to get into the Chuunin exam now, you're not fucking me over after all that training, Kakashi. Shouldn't have said anything about that death-wish shit earlier to him._'  
"Okay, okay," Naruto started, seeing there was no help from his teammates. "Haruno opened her big mouth, something incredibly stupid flew out and I overreacted."  
"Hmmm. So, Sakura, what was it exactly that escaped your mouth?"  
"I- I ..."  
"It doesn't matter. And I don't want to hear it again."  
"Surely Naruto, if there is a problem in the team, especially this close to the exam, I should be aware."  
"It's not a problem. It won't jeopardize teamwork, I think we showed that just now."  
"Actually I saw very little team spirit back in there."  
"Nani!" Naruto questioned his teacher's judgement.  
"Sakura should have never had to take her clothes off in front of us in the first place."  
"Then what about treating kunoichi as complete equals?"  
"How about treating this one as a teammate who you have to keep into account?"  
"I sure as hell didn't hear her complain. Besides, I figured this was another one of your strange, twisted and perverted team building exercises," Naruto explained himself, hoping to divert the attention long enough to cash in their exam entrance tickets.

Kakashi in truth was just stressed out from dealing with his idiotic, shallow and selfish genin team. He could actually use the minimum 6-day vacation. Naruto and Sasuke seemed capable enough to survive the first two parts of the exam. Sakura ... she could hold them back a little, but maybe that was necessary. Otherwise the other two would probably rush into any opponent without thinking. And if the experience didn't kill them it would only bring them out stronger. They'd need to be strong. If Orochimau were indeed to attack soon, they would need to be as strong as they could. The snake would probably bring some friends. Maybe the Sands, things had become pretty unstable in the dessert with the daiymo cutting their budget. Or the newly erected Sound ... but the jounin doubted such a small, newly erected village would dare face the might of Konoha. Anyway, the exam was as good an opportunity as any to gauge his team's strength. Besides, he might as well give them home advantage while he could.

---

Things had been exciting for a while there, but now Naruto was able to relax. Admittedly he had been a little surprised when Kakashi finally decided he'd allow him to participate in the Chuunin exam. Walking through the village, he suddenly found himself being followed by a strange rectangle shaped rock with two holes in it.  
"Konohamaru, what have I told you about that disguise? I swear if you use that thing again I'm not gonna play with you any more."  
A large explosion went off on the street and three coughing little kids appeared.  
Kof, kof "Sorry leader."  
"Still too much gunpowder," Udon emerged from the smoke.  
"Leader, will you still play ninja with us now?" Moegi pleaded her face still black as a coal.  
"Hmmmm, I don't know. I should be training for _Chuunin Exam_ and you guys didn't do what I asked."  
"Neh, Naruto, you're in the Chuunin Exam now!" Konohamaru shouted.  
"Hell yeah! I'm so gonna beat you to becoming Hokage now, Konohamaru."  
"No way! I'll become Hokage way before you'll even make Jounin!"  
"Oh yeah?"  
"Yeah!"  
"Then show me what you got kids," the blonde grinned, initiating their little playtime.

Naruto rarely had any playtime when he was their age. Spending time with the Konohamaru Corps was his little way of catching up. Heh, playing ninja. Who knows how much better he had been able to do at the academy if he just had someone to play such a stupid, little game with. Half an hour into their recreation Konohamaru suddenly bumped into someone. A guy in a black jumpsuit, wearing face paint violently pulled him up by his collar.  
"You little runt, watch where you're going."  
"Sorry ... it was an accident."  
"Maybe I should give you a little accident of your own, so it wont happen again."  
"Hey! Get your hands of that kid!"  
"Ha, why should I do such a thing, Leaf nin?"  
Naruto sighed as if in disappointment, "You just had to ask huh? Oh well, Konohamaru go easy on him. Remember he's a guest here."  
The little academy student had a look of panic and disbelief on him. Was his leader just gonna idly stand by and watch as he was gonna get beaten up by this sand nin? Then for an instant it seemed as if something shifted when the scared genin suddenly grinned. Like a cat Konohamaru twisted his body so that his feet came within kicking distance to the man's face. The sand nin reacted however, pulling his face back and dropping the arm in which he held the little kid. This was exactly what the boy had been counting on as now he was getting propelled to arms reach of the guy's family heirlooms. Hitting the man square in the jackpot he managed to get free of his assaulter and ran towards Naruto's side. Hiding behind his leaders leg he stuck his tongue out towards the visitor.

"Konohamaru, go back to Moegi and Udon," he said motioning the child back, then shifting his gaze back to their guest.  
"Goddamn, little motherf- Aah, shit. Get back here yo-"  
"He was just an academy student, imagine what I would do to you, not to mention the Anbu."  
"He, you're bluffing," the youngster said, trying to look triumphant while still clutching his balls, making it quite impossible.  
"Maybe. But since you just lost to an eight year old, do you think I really need to? You could always check with my team-mate," he said while pointing to the tree next to the sand nin.  
"Unlike your child molesting teammate, we'd like to welcome you to Konoha," said a Sasuke clone, who appeared right beside the redhead who had been hiding in a tree.  
Only a poof was heard in reply, as a spike of sand destroyed the clone, going straight through his heart. Another poof and Sasuke emerged back right next to his teammate. The red head then simply disappeared in a mass of swirling sand to reappear between his two fellow sand nin.

"Leaf nin, what is your name?" the redhead asked looking the clone in his eyes.  
"Who's asking?"  
"My name is Gaara. Gaara of the Dessert."  
"Uchiha Sasuke."  
"You have the same eyes as me, Uchiha. I think I'll make you my prey. Kankuro, Tenmari, let's go," he squinted his eyes before turning around to leave.

'_What the-! That ain't right! Idiot is impressed by a clone? What is it with that guy! I mean sure, I make a pretty good clone but come on! He's not even here and he still gets all the attention.'  
'You have to admit though. I do look fantastic.'  
_He threw the clone a raised eyebrow.  
_'Why don't you go do whatever's on your piece of my mind.'  
'Sweet, fieldtrip!' _the clone smiled before he jumped out of sight._  
_

Naruto had to admit the Wind guy was good though. Sand just flew out of that big gourd on his back. No hand seals or anything. Maybe it was some strange bloodlimit from the sand. He pondered over it as he walked back to the Konohamaru Corps.

"Hey leader, how did you do that?"  
"Do what, Konohamaru?" he smiled.  
"You know. Teleport me away and making me kick that guys ass."  
"Oh, simple Kage Bunshin, Henge and Kawarimi no jutsu combo. Besides the last two you should know that from the academy."  
"Sorry leader. And thank you for saving me."  
"You're welcome kid. Now I still have tons of stuff to do, so I gotta go. Later guys."  
"Bye leader!" all the kids yelled with a sad face.

Before he could meet up with Hinata and tell her the good news, there was one more thing the blonde really needed to do. Making sure he wasn't followed he sneaked back under the bridge where his team always met up. Crawling against the stone surface he was suddenly amazed by a deep, smooth 5-inch gap that ran through the stone over half a yard. Lucky for him he had been holding his arm a good 2-foot away from the stones; otherwise the thing would have probably collapsed on top of him. The long line was probably caused by the fact that he hadn't held his hand still when he was surprised by the sudden chakra outburst and out of reflex had pointed the beam away from him. Earlier he hadn't had the chance to inspect the damage he had caused. He hadn't felt like it very much either, he'd just wanted to break the bitch's nose. If Kakashi hadn't interfered he would have probably done so as well and might have continued throwing his fist in her face until he had reached her brain. Stupid bitch, wishing he were dead. He had probably saved her life dozens of times already and this was the thanks he got. If he'd known there was about to erupt a three foot long lance of purple chakra from his hand, he might have pushed it completely through the bridge instead releasing his other hand and falling down the water.

_'No no no, that isn't any way to think of your teammates, Naruto. Overreacting again. They might be assholes, but they're Leaf nin all the same. Besides, it's only Sakura. Stupid bitch doesn't even know what she's saying half of the time. Probably trying to impress Sasuke by talking shit about me. Forget about her. She's a no talent klutz with shit for brains. Probably just pissed I'm out showing her stupid crush now.'_

Forgetting about Pinky, Naruto once again focussed on the things at hand. Why did all those cool new techniques, if he could call them that, only happen when he was pissed off? Must be something different about the way he molds chakra then. So many new things were happening recently. First the Hokage telling him he might have a bloodline and Hinata's dad plainly stating he was constantly mixing large amounts of demon chakra with his own. Not to mention all the fire jutsu'd he had had to learn, plus the Akame Amakaze style he had to practice in secret. So many things to learn, figure out or play with and so little time to actually do them. The Chuunin Exam hadn't even started yet and he was already looking forward to the end of it.  
First things first though, he figured as he left the scene. There were still some hours left to train before he'ld meet up with Hinata later today. Trying to figure out any strange ways in how his chakra twisted when he got mad was something he could think about later. Right now he had a few laps around the village to finish.

Meanwhile a pink-haired kunoichi was working out her frustrations on a bunch of animated training dummies. This was her seventeenth encounter with them today and she had develloped quite some skills at taking them out over the past few weeks. After taking out the last one she was surprised and rewarded by a sudden clapping. Turning around she saw her sensei sitting on one of the lower tree branches.

"Very well, Sakura. I see you have improved quite a bit since you first started here," he said kumping down to ground level.  
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."  
"But I did not come here today to check up on your progress," he said with a serious voice whilst walking towards her.  
"Oh. Then what can I do for you, sensei?"  
"You can start by explaining what all the ruckus between you and Naruto was about."  
Shame and fear crept across the girl's face. She had truelly hoped their instructor had forgotten about the incident, especially since he had already allowed them to enter the Chuunin Exam.  
"I'm waiting, Sakura."  
"I- I ... I said something stupid."  
"I figured that out myself already. Right now I want to know bad it really was. It was obvious Naruto didn't want me to know, so now I come to ask you."  
"I .. I didn't mean to ... I didn't even know he was there ..." the young genin murmurred.  
"Well you did and he was. Now tell me. I'm sure it can't be that bad."  
"I- I told Sasuke that ... I wished ... Naruto was .. dead."

Kakashi took a deep breath and gave her a serious look before happily saying "See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?"  
She just stood there, surprise written all over her face. "Demo, Kakash-"  
"Sakura, people say stupid things all the time. The question now is, what are going to do about it? We both know you didn't mean what you said. You and Naruto might be having some issues lately, but it's not like you want to kill eachother, right?"  
"No," she quietly said, her eyes still downward.  
"Good. Now go apologise to him. It's best for you all to have things resolved before the Chuunin Exam."  
"Nani? Why do _I_ have to apologise?"  
"You wished him death first, right?"  
"Demo ..."  
"No buts. I want you and Naruto to get your stuff resolved and that _is_ an order," the tall teacher said before dissapearing in an a swirl of leafs.

Scientists say a human being normally uses about 10 of the total capacity of his brain. Imagine you are a small piece of your mind. A floating thought. A recipy for chicken or an idea for mowing your grass faster. Maybe you are just the part that likes ramen or the smell of vanilla. Then all of a sudden, you are given a body of your own and access to the part of the mind that actually allows you to think. A body, the freedom to think and the ability to look at the real world. In return, all you have to do is making the body do whatever the other part tells you to. To a complete human it might sound like a bad deal. But for a tiny little thought it's like you're ripping off the other party. Got all that? Good. Welcome to the life of a Kage Bunshin.

Now this particular Kage Bunshin's essence of being was easily put as: "_Who the hell are these people?_". It was question that was actually laying unused in Naruto's mind at the moment of the clone's creation. Naruto himself had been too busy thinking of protecting Konohamaru and on playing his bluff of his reinforcement to give that question any imediate thought and afterwards gave it little thought. Perhaps this had been due to the clone using it all to the time and doing nothing else

Sand nin, red-head, blonde girl with a huge ass fan and a skirt that left little to the imagination, asshole in a stupid, kiddy looking jumpsuit with fake pointy ears, Gaara of the Dessert, Tenmari, Kankuro.  
That was easy enough.But now he wondered, what did he _really_ know about them? Gaara ... what did he mean exactly with "the same eyes" or thinking of making me his prey. He couldn't have been a clone as well, right? It would be possible the way he teleported ... a sand clone user? Nhaaa, there's no way he should know I'm a clone. We didn't use handseals to make me. Sasuke's eyes? ... Does he have the Sharingan? Nha, come on. There hasn't been a single Uchiha missing-nin lose for more then a week since the clan's independence. And before that they were slaves to the Hyuuga's 'bloodline protectionism'. Sasuke and Kakashi should be the only two people left. Unless there's someone else like Kakashi. But then it should be active all the time, right.

For a moment the clone went on a sidetrack, thinking why there weren't any other people like Kakashi. There must have been a lot of eyes available right after the Uchiha massacre. You'ld think at least someone must have figured not to let them all go to waste. So eliminating the thought that they were auctioned off to the highest bidder or that Gaara carried a collection of bloodline bodyparts in that gourd he still knew nothing about the trio that could be usefull.

Seeing his self proclaimed possible hunter leave he decided it might be best to stalk the party for a while. After all prey is best off knowing it's predator, that way it can prevent getting caught by it's tactics and ending up as fertilazer.  
Using his knowledge of the surrounding to his advantage he took to the trees and disappeared in the canopy.

As the clone followed the group of sand nin, jumping from tree to tree as a squirrel, walking around as a dog or hopping rooftops in cat form, something that had been been nagging at him suddenly clicked. For being foreign to the village the trio knew it's way around pretty good. Sometimes one or two of them would awe in front of a local monument or architectural building, but never was there any doubt in their next turn. Right now they were heading in the direction of the stadium. Once they reached it the three quickly made their way to the top, walking on the walls of the building. The bunshin stayed on their blindside before doing the same and closed in to hearing range posing as a streetcat.

"So, this is where it will all begin," Kankuro asked retorically.  
"Gaara, will you be alright?"  
The red-head didn't say anything at first. Then there was a twitch in his eye and he held his hand up to the kanji on his forehead.  
"Yes."  
"Please be carefull Gaara. Once you transform, your shield will be deactivated."  
"He'll be fine. Once he transforms nothing can stop Gaara. Leaf won't even know what hit 'em."  
_'Shield, transform, unstoppable. They make him sound like he's more then just an average genin. Hmm, maybe their own version of Sasuke. No wonder he was so interested in me, especially if their main targets will be Leaf nins. They seem to know more about the exam then us as well. Might be Kakashi's fault, we should ask Hinata what she knows later.'_

Suddenly the wind shifted and in another whirl of sand a Wind country jounin appeared beside the team. The left have of his face was half covered by a loose cloth or bandage that hung down from behind his forehead protector.  
"Gaara, Tenmari, Kankuro. What are you three doing here? You should know better then to draw such attention to yourselfs."  
"We thought it usefull to get a better understanding of the surroundings so be'ld be prepared as best as possible when-"  
"Watch your mouth Tenmari. Besides the kage, there might not be a single Leaf nin that can pose a threat to Gaara, but the Anbu of the Leaf do not lack in stealth. One wrong word and everything might be comprimised."

Hinata and Naruto had been training furiously for the past hour. Ever since Naruto had let her in on the new tai jutsu style he wanted to practice with her, he didn't put up with Hinata holding anything back. He had not told her all the details of the style, like it's name or the fact that he was copying it from his teammate, but she knew he wanted to keep it a secret until the chuunin exams, especially from his teammates. So she now fought Naruto with her Byakugan constantly activated to watch out for spectators. This was both benificial to her stamina, chakra control and her skills with the family heritage. Though it limited the use of her skills in tai jutsu due to the inability to give him her full attention.

Naruto himself wasn't slacking off either. At every moment during their sparring he had a minimum of eight clones actively guarding and patrolling their practice area, while another two observed both combattants, anciously making notes in two small red books. The one observing Hinata had the more difficult task of analysing and understanding the Jyuuken style while taking note of any possible errors in the blue haired girls personal use of the style. This way both parties got something out of the deal. While the other clone that observed Naruto had a little different job. He and his creator were in constant 'telepathic' contact, the clone going over a list of moves and combinations Naruto was to execute while simultaneously writing down and telling him of any flaws in his execution. Despite both combatants invisible strains of mental activity, any possible observer would be impressed by the genins' techniques and acrobatic movements.

Suddenly the Hyuuga heiress' eyes caught something a few dozen yards behind the treeline.  
"Naruto-"  
"I know," he winked, dropping his stance and smoothly returning to his old street fighting style.  
"It is one of your teammates, shouldn't you say something to her?" Hinata asked between breaths as she launched into a combination of punches, kicks and a sweep that got her crush hitting the ground very unceremoniously. She surpressed a small giggle as she knew he was faking the sudden weakness and pulling it all of very convincingly.  
"We had a little disagreement this morning," he avoided the answer flipping to his feet. "Things might get ugly if she comes. I'ld prefer to avoid the trouble if possible."  
"Since when do you try to stay out of trouble?" she teased right before striking his left shoulder and closing off one of his tenketsu.  
"Aauw. And since when did you get so feisty?" the blonde whined with a laugh to surpress the pain.  
The girl just smiled. A few days ago she was finally getting able to hide her blushing to an extend, but the little red shade that did get through to her cheeks now gave her a somewhat naughty look.

"Naruto, Hinata", a pink-haired kunoichi approached them from behind the trees.  
"Hello Sakura," Hinata smiled.  
"... Haruno," it was more a sigh then a greeting from the blonde.  
"Naruto .. can we talk?"  
He eyed the girl for a second before answerring. "Sure." Poking Hinata in her side he winked "Hey, this ain't over yet. I'll see you in a minute," before hopping off into the trees.  
Halting on a thick nearby branch he turned towards his teammate. "Talk."  
"Naruto , I-... I'm sorry. I-"  
"Did you mean it?"he asked, eyes like cold blue steel.  
"I-eh, offcourse I mean it."  
"I ment, did you mean it when you said you sometimes wish I was dead," the only emotion that was hearable in his voice was the fact that he was trying not to shout.  
"I- ... "

"Or are you still trying to impress Sasuke by talking me down?"  
"No I-! ... I ,"  
"You're not? Hmm. Well, good for you, I guess," he didn't hide his surprise but didn't lose any of his confidence as he leaned relaxed back to the tree trunk.  
".. Maybe I was. sigh Naruto, I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said. I was just ..."  
"You were just being you. Yeah okay ... Maybe I overreacted."   
"Naruto... you think we can just, you know, get back to normal to eachother?"  
"No," the answer came quick, flat and short, "I know what 'normal' you mean, and you should've realised a long time ago I didn't particularly like that treatment."  
Sakura didn't answer. She had realised her treatment towards her teammate hadn't always been very just. That didn't mean she liked apologising to this new Naruto however. It wasn't like he was being very friendly himself.  
The blonde let out another deep breath before answerring. "Whatever, let's just enter the Chuunin Exam with a clean slate, we'll see how we get along afterwards."  
His teammate considered this for a moment before agreeing to the terms and being back on her way, leaving him and Hinata alone once again.

Meanwhile a single Kage Bunshin was experiancing feelings of annoyance, amusement and intrigue concerning a certain Sand nin. Already several flower pots had met their demise when they had fallen from a second story window and crashed onto a shield of sand. At a certain point during it's quest the clone had impersonated two young children on kunai practice, only to have the wooden, blunt projectiles intercepted and returned at full speed. Only their clever, clumsy looking reaction had saved him and his partner from exposing themselves then. Yet it was worth it just to know that Gaara's shield wasn't just a defence. Something else that bothered him was the fact that the shield seemed to respond to threats autonomously. Very strange indeed. A technique that's so adavanced would require a huge constant amount of chakra even if it was a bloodline, yet the clone couldn't detect him using any at all. Only one thing was certain, this guy definately wasn't a regular genin.

AN: Yeah, Naruto has a Walkman. Would've given him an iPod, but then he'd also needed a computer and maybe broadband. Then he would've just spent all his time watching porn.

Kairyouhin Kawarimi no jutsu: "Improved product replacement technique" Not a real technique. For a few chapters I've been letting Naruto seemingly appear out of nowhere. In truth he just performs a long range Kage Bunshin, which he uses as a replacement medium for Kawarimi. With Sasuke and Kakashi watching he had to bluff to not let them find out about his long range Kage Bunshin capabilities.

I'm really starting to dislike writing combat. Especially including Sakura. I mean, could that girl actually do anything besides clones and basic kicks and punches in canon? Talent for genjutsu my ass.

Akame Amakaze style: forgot to write down what I meant by it when I named the style, had to look it up to find it again. I translate stuff with dictionary for all who are interested.  
akame: bloodshot eyes / red mullet  
amakaze: rain and wind / driving rain  
I figure I just meant red eyed wind or something.


	8. Chapter 8

Thank the gods I don't own Naruto. Just imagine how much hassle that would bring. Besides, my drawing's crap and my Japanese non-existent.

* * *

The three had met up at their usual meeting spot before jointly going over to the Chuunin Exam. When they reached the second floor Naruto just wanted to continue to the third, but stopped and turned when he noticed his teammates taking a different direction. He figured Sasuke wanted to check out the competition.  
He wondered why so many leaf genin where here, Naruto knew the building like the back of his hand from his days as a student and a prankster. Even if some teams graduated a few years earlier, the nearby one with a Hyuuga should surely know this was not room 321. For a moment he wondered whether the blank eyed boy could be Neji, Hinata's cousin. Naruto couldn't be sure, the Hyuuga were a big clan afterall.

"Now dismiss this genjutsu. Sakura, you must have noticed first. You are the most observant one of us."  
"Hai, indeed, we are not even on the third floor."  
'_Whoopty-freaking-doo, aren't you two supergeniusses. I wonder if they realise half the people here must have known that already._'

'_Oh great, now he wants to show off_,' Naruto rolled his eyes as Sasuke attacked the chuunin guarding the entrance to, from what he recalled, had to be the broomcloset. A look of surprise came to his face however as he noticed the green guy that was just getting thrown around moving in to intercept. A nod of admiration soon followed as he succeeded in stopping both parties attacks.

'_Damn that guy's fast. Strong too ... Is that one of those trainingsuits the Green Beast suggests wearing? Doesn't look that ba-aaaad,_' he thought as he suddenly noticed the eye soaring effect created by the guy's butt. '_Okay definitely no trainingsuit. I'll really have to send a "thank you" note to that Mitarishi Anko reviewer. He must've read it too, looks like he's a few chapters ahead of me_.''

"You. Who are you?"  
"If you want someone's name, you should introduce yourself first."

'_Oh Assuke; you are so cool and smart. First you show off silently screaming "Look at me! I'm so awesome!" and then when someone asks you who you are, you go all like "Me? Well I'm not gonna tell you. Nhja". And I guess ... now you're just gonna turn around and show everybody that giant clan symbol on your back. Fan-fucking-tastic.'_

"Great going, genius." Naruto mentioned when they were out of general earshot.

"What, dobe?"

"You just pissed off a Hyuuga."  
His teammate only arrogantly "hmmp"-ed in reply.  
"Such a reply only means you know you're wrong, but are too arrogant to admit it."  
Sasuke halted his movement and gave Naruto a deathglare right before "Uchiha Sasuke!"  
The green guy jumped down to their level.

"When you want to know someone's name you should introduce yourself first, right? My name is Rock Lee." After proclaiming his undying love to Sakura the boy continued. "I wish to fight you, Uchiha Sasuke. To test the strength of my hard work versus that of a genius."

"Don't hurt yourself, genius," Naruto said when the Uchiha couldn't resist the challenge.  
The fight lasted about 20 seconds before Sasuke was sent flying and followed up by Lee, who seemed to be pressing his finger to the other's spine. When Naruto noticed where this was going he wasted no time and created a Kage Bunshin right in front of Lee, grabbing his wrists and so stopping the bandages from reaching his teammate. Since the clone was created in mid air and hadn't been jumping the two immediately were pulled down by gravity. One of the bandages however seemed to have been pinned down to the wall by a paper windmill. From Naruto's viewpoint this had been visible just a few seconds sooner and so the clone had ample time to prepare using Lee's body to cushion their impact with the wall. Releasing his grip on the boy's left wrist he moved his hand to Lee's ear, painfully pulling the sensory organ.

"DON'T damage my teammates before the start of the exam!" the clone yelled before vanishing into smoke.

Lee immediately pulled loose and ran to apologise to the windmill throwing ... turtle? Only to be suddenly punched in the head by ... a future version of himself? And then seconds later the two were seen hugging in front of a beach at sunset. Things had gotten very weird in a very short time span indeed. And the Chuunin Exam hadn't even started yet! In the blink of an eye the man had disappeared and Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder.  
'_Wow, he's fast,' _the blonde thought as the man promptly introduced himself as Maito Gai, Prideful Green Beast of Konoha and eternal rival of their own sensei, Hatake Kakashi.  
_'This guy ... he's ... the Green Beast? Fast. Strong no doubt. He just ... sounds and looks .. weird. This room is clearly suffering from an overdose of spandex and eyebrows. And he says he's on the same level as Kakashi. Maybe I underestimated my sensei. Gai must be wearing at least 500 pounds per leg, might have a few hundreds on his arms too by the looks of it. This guy IS a monster_._ ... Looks like he's a pretty decent teacher as well,_' Naruto thought as he threw another glance at Lee.

"You must be Uzumaki Naruto. Pretty impressive intercepting my Lee-kun from hurting your teammate, I see the flames of youth are burning brightly in you!"

"Thank you sir. And I must say I am pretty impressed by your teaching abilities as well. Your young, flaming apprentice is clearly proof of those!"

"Hoho. For a student of my eternal rival to speak so highly of me is a great honour! Lee is indeed my most prized student ..."  
Sakura could no longer withstand all the weirdness and quietly whispered to Sasuke "Oh no, he's being _social_ again. Let's just leave now before anybody sees us with them." Sasuke couldn't agree more, though the reason was more because of his pride then popularity concerns. He just couldn't believe he almost lost to one of these idiots. And the guts of Naruto to interfere in one of his fights, to make it look as if HE, Uchiha Sasuke, needed saving.

When Naruto noticed his teammates trying to sneak off he waited till they were about to round the corner before yelling "Hey wait up you guys" and throwing the Green Beast a "I'll be right back" signal. Instead of going after them however he silently created a Kage Bunshin and sent to follow his teammates.

"My apologies for the deception Maito-sama," he said when they were out of hearing range, "but you see, I have a rivalry as well. With your eternal rival's prized pupil, Uchiha Sasuke."

"Ha! So now you come to me, the prideful green beast, to seek help in techniques to defeat yet another Sharingan user! I'm sorry Uzumaki-san, but I am afraid it would be wrong to interfere in your sensei's training schedule."

"Demo, Gai-sensei, you already are," Naruto grinned as he pulled up his pants showing Gai his own weightset. His weren't the typical weightbands Gai and Lee wore, but consisted of 2 kunai holders that were adjusted to be worn at the ankles. The weights in turn were replaced by 7 kunai, each one sporting the weightseals as described in Gai's book, weighing the weapon down to about 15 pounds. "Also, it was your own prized student that just now clearly won against him using his superior speed. So now he will increase his own speed training, which forces me to further increase my own. I implore you, Maito Gai-sama, help me in overcoming an obstacle that was created by your own prized pupil."  
Tears shot to the man's eyes as he went of in a monologue about the irony of fate as it had made him cross paths with his rival's less favoured student. In the end he knelt down on a single knee and embraced Naruto in one of his bear hugs. Naruto suddenly finding himself on the same white sanded beach he saw Gai and Lee in, this time with a red sun setting in the dark sea behind him.

"Very well, Naruto-kun. I give in to your plea for my help. Lee-kun! Come over here."

"Hai! Gai-sensei," the boy saluted, drying his own tears.

"Undo your weights and hand them to Naruto."

"Hai," he said immediately removing his weights from underneath his leg warmers and offering them to his fellow genin. Upon receiving them however, Naruto's hands immediately shot to the ground, over encumbered by the sheer weight of the objects.

"Now Naruto-kun, I see you have been experimenting with the weight sealing techniques I used in my book, so I'm sure you are familiar with the workings of these bands."

"Each little container here increases whatever weight you put in it tenfold, right?"

"Hai, as you can see, Lee used 30 containers per leg. Each carrying half a pound."

"Demo, sensei. What about my training?"

"You Lee-kun, will have the honour of wearing the proud Green Beast of Konoha's very own weight bands!" Gai proclaimed, undoing his own leaf green weights. "But you must know that I train at a much higher level, so be sure to remove at least two rows of weights."

The jounin threw his own training weights casually in his student's direction. When Lee caught one in each hand he was immediately thrown backwards and on the floor, following the path of the weights. When the dust cleared a faint, but enthusiastic "Thank you, Gai-sensei," was heard. Naruto had meanwhile removed the top row of his sets and deactivated the seals of his two hundred pounds of kunais.  
"Thank you, Gai-sensei, but as you can see, I was perfectly capable of creating my own weights. Is there no other way then such constant muscle intensive training to gain faster speeds?"  
"Naruto, you break the Green Beast's heart. Already, so soon in your path of being a passionate student of mine are you trying to slack off. Perhaps the flames of youth burn not as bright in you as I first thought they did," Gai dramatized.

"No, of course not Gai-sensei. But my greatest talent has always been ninjutsu. A field which I have been neglecting too much recently in favour of your own specialities. I simply want to check for different methods that might better suit my needs."  
"Ha, for an opponent who bears the Sharingan, there are no other ways, Naruto. The slightest amount of chakra you send to your muscles will light you up for them, predicting all your burning desires of movement. For you to rival with an Uchiha, I'm afraid you might have an unlucky talent. However," the man suddenly exclaimed in renewed enthusiasm, "I, the Powerful Green Beast, will help you overcome the extra difficulty that I and my student have put on you. That is, if you can prove to me your fire of youth and ambition burns bright enough by coming to me after the second part of the exam, wearing the same amount of weight the beautiful Lee was just now."  
"Yosh! I take that challenge and will get that training from you, Gai-sensei! Now excuse me, but I must go and replace my clone before my teammates enter the examroom."

The examination room was filled with more ninja then Naruto had imagined. It briefly made him wonder how so many foreign ninja could have been in Konoha the last few days without him even noticing. These thoughts were quickly forgotten however as he noticed the rest of the rookie 9 close to the entrance. But where was -  
"SASUKE-KUN!" Ino who had successfully snuck up behind the three suddenly exclaimed before grabbing the ever popular Uchiha in a fan girl strangle hold.  
Naruto immediately steered clear from the inevitable girlfight that was about to erupt and just headed for the rest of his former classmates.  
"Ohaiyo Hinata-chan, hi guys," he greeted cheerfully.  
"H-Hi Naruto-kun."  
The others just greeted him with his name or a nod.

"Uzumaki," Shino suddenly called out to him, immediately getting the other five rookies' attention, for if the ever silent youngster actually made the effort to speak, it would definitely be worth it. "It appears I must thank you on behalf of my team for being a more competent teacher then you were a student."  
"What are you talking about Shino?"  
Shino just threw a glance in Hinata's direction.  
"Hu? Hinata and me just spar together, it's not like I've taught her anything she didn't already know," it was more a question then a statement.  
For a moment the bug user just stared at Naruto through the ink black sunglasses he always wore. The complete lack of visible facial expressions made it near impossible to say what the heir to the Aburame clan could be pondering on.  
"Perhaps ... I was mistaken."

The two continued to stare each other down for a couple more seconds before Naruto and the rest of the rookies burst out laughing. It wasn't long before they all entered in conversation, seemingly forgetting the rest of the room's occupants. That was, until an older Leaf nin with grey hair, sporting glasses interrupted them.  
"You guys are rookies just out of the academy right? Screaming like schoolgirls… geez… this isn't a picnic."

Seeing as all the young genin just stared at him questioningly the young man just continued speaking, a friendly smile constantly plastered on his face.  
"I'm Kabuto, but instead of that, look behind you…those guys are from the hidden rain, they have short tempers, everyone is nervous about the exam. Quiet down before you cause a scene. Well, I can't blame you, you guys remind me of how I used to be."  
"So you have taken the exam before? Is this your second time?"  
"Actually, this is the fourth year I'm participating, so that would make it my seventh time," Kabuto scratched the back of his head in embarrasment. "Anyway, here let me share some info with you guys," he pulled out his nin-info cards.

After illustrating the workings of the cards with the information he had on Sasuke, he asked if they had any questions concerning any other genin.  
"What about Rock Lee?" Sasuke asked, trying to sound as non-chalant as possible.  
"Hmmm, Rock Lee, Rock Lee, ... Here he is. Rock Lee, student of Maito Gai, didn't use to be anything special till last year. Now his taijutsu skills have gone through the roof, together with his strenght and stamina. The only other special thing about him is his total inability to use chakra. Anybody else you want to know about?"  
"You have anything on foreign genin?" Naruto asked.  
"Who do you have in mind, Naruto-kun?"  
"Gaara of the Desert."  
"Hmmm, let's see ... Wow! I don't have a hole lot of info on this kid, but his mission history is impressive enough: 15 C-ranks and 4 B-ranks. That's pretty amazing for a genin. The only other data I have is that from each and every mission he has returned without a single scratch."  
Naruto pondered over this for a few seconds, playing with thoughts about Gaara's shield of sand. It was odd, Kabuto knew his mission history and how the boy never seemed harmed upon his return, but there was nothing on the card concerning his abilities. And why on earth did Kabuto act surprised when he read the card? Had he not written down the information himself?  
"So you know nothing about any transformation techniques or a bloodline?"  
For a moment Kabuto seemed to look surprised, but before any genin was able to notice it he had already masked his face again with a smile.  
"No, but if you know anything I'd be interested to hear about it." Seeing as there was no reply from Naruto, the older genin continued. "Let's see, Uzumaki Naruto ... a crapload of D-missions, 15 C's and one A. Nothing we didn't know before from your teammate. No noticeable talents in gen or tai jutsu, huge chakra capacity, but little control, though the word about the last crop harvesting mission you pulled does suggest otherwise. ... Heh, do you actually know any combat techniques besides Kage Bunshin?" His smile hadn't changed, but the motion of his eyebrows showed he had meant nothing good by the comment.  
"Well, there is just this one thing I picked up recently," Naruto said, putting his hands in a tiger seal. As he pulled his hands away from his lips he launched a perfectly white-greenish phlem of spit which landed deadcenter on the card. Kabuto gave Naruto a confused, slightly angered look, right before the card in his hand suddenly erupted in flames. A mild look of amusement came across the older boy's face before merely joking he would have to make sure to update that information.

A fast movement to the front of the room instantly put the grey-haired ninja back on guard though. A Sound genin, who must have been pissed off at Kabuto's earlier comment that Sound was a relatively small and new country -which it was, had launched a surprise attack. The Leaf nin wasn't taken off guard so easy though and smoothly blocked the offender's punch.  
A smile crept on the Sound nin's face and moments later Kabuto's glasses cracked and he doubled over, vomit falling to the ground. Before anyone could react however an explosive sound came from the front of the room and the examinator announced himself.

"Quiet down you useless bastards!"  
Instantly the room was silenced and gave the man their complete attention.  
"My name is Morino Ibiki, I will be the examinator during this part of the exam and will not tolerate any shit. Hidden Sound, shut your yaps and sit your asses down on your designated seats unless you wish to stop being part of this examination. The rest of you vile pieces of humans waste follow that example or the same will apply to you all as well."

After all the genin were seated Ibiki continued. "For the first part of this exam there will be no fighting involved. As a matter of fact, there will be no fighting during the entire exam unless you are instructed to. Even then, there will not be any killing unless you wanna be send back to your home in pieces." The tone of the man's voice left no room for arguement, even by those who knew better.  
"This first test will be a written exam. A paper will now be placed on your table. Do not turn your test around before I tell you to. There are certain rules to this test that you must be aware of first. Rule number 1: you start with ten points, for every question you get wrong, you lose a point.Second rule: this is a teamtest, whether you pass will be determined by the combined score of your team. Three: anyone caught cheating during the exam will lose 2 points. So there will be some who will lose all their points during the exam and be asked to leave, there will be no arguments then. As shinobi trying to reach the level of chuunin, act as proud shinobi should . And the final rule… those that lose all their initial points and those that fail to answer any questions correctly will be failed immediately along with their two teammates."

"There will be a final question handed out at the 45 minute mark and the exam will last an hour. BEGIN!"

Once Naruto had turned around his quiz paper and started reading the questions there were a lot of thoughts going through his mind, most however came down to the same general thing: "What the fuck? How and why would anybody even know all this!" He pained his brain on the questions, the moments he actually wished he had paid more attention in the academy where few, but yet here was one.  
After about 3 minutes of fruitlessly trying to remember any formula to determine the total possible targets one could hit when standing on top of a 60 foot tree with a 15 foot diameter he decided he needed to calm down and relax his mind. There were to many distractions right now, so in an effort to clear his head he did what he recently learned seemed to work wonders for situations like these.  
'Kage Bunshin no jutsu' he whispered in his mind.  
There was no visible result for any onlookers, untill suddenly his orange jacket seemed to sprout 4 bulges that started moving across his chest. Sliding down the zipper a little a little orange head immediately popped out from below. A small orange guinea pig had suddenly crawled out of his vest and jumped down to the desk. Naruto ignored it and threw himself back at the questions.

_'42'  
'42? 42 what? What are you talking about?'  
'Fourty two targets.'  
'What the -? How do you know?'  
'It says so on Hinata's paper.'  
'You cheated!' _he threw the little critter an upset, questioning glance._  
'I was bored and I'm a hamster, who cares what I'm looking at anyway?'  
'You're a guinea pig and you could have gotten us failed.'  
'Meh, just could have lost us two points at most, besides, I'm a part of your mind, you would have asked me to sooner or later.'_  
Any observer who could have watched the pair would be amused by the unspoken discussion between the two. The boy had been busy throwing his little rodent a number of odd looks and now seemed to be involved in a staring contest with his little furry friend.  
_'If it makes you feel any better, she probably got the answer the same way.'  
'Wha- Hinata's smart enough to know this stuff by her own.'  
'Maybe, but why does she have her Byakugan activated then?''She's got the other ones to-'  
'Alright, alright, just dictate me already.'_

As Naruto finally started writing down some answers, he thought about the philosophical aspect about the discussion he just had. He had had arguments with his clones before, he just never thought about it. Now that he was, he wondered how close this situation was to certain mental disseases he had heard about before. Halfway during question 7 however he got tired of the worrying train of thought and just gave his other 3 clones the go ahead to have some fun. Figuring that if the examinator wanted them to "read between the rules", everything besides talking, getting caught cheating or fighting should be allowed in this test.

It wasn't long after, that suddenly, the sound of several small explosions filled the room. Nearly all of the genin looked up at the origin of the sounds in surprise, only to see 3 fellow testtakers with blackend faces recovering from the shock of having their exam papers blown up in their face. Only moments later, several genin were disqualified for screaming out in horror and frustration as they noticed huge inktspots smeared all over their answers. Chaos, panic and disorder were the words for the last fifteen minutes, Naruto, despite sitting in the front of the class, was the undisturbable Zen epicentre of the room throughout the whole ordeal.

"Okay you miserable snot monkeys, we have just reached the 45 minute marker. Pens down and mouths shut!" Ibiki spoke, closing up his pocket watch.  
"It is now time for the tenth question. However," the man paused, a grin forming on his face, "to make things a little interesting, there is an added rule to this question. If you decide to take it and answer it correctly, you pass. But should you fail to answer it right, you will stay a genin forever."  
Murmurs and protests were heard loudly throughout the room, Ibiki just told them off. It was his exam, giving him total and complete freedom of the rules. Naruto didn't buy it. As a prankster, he had long ago read all the way through Konoha's lawbook. It had been a punishment from Iruka for the time he had smeared in the faculty toiletseats with tiger balsem. He hated the punishment at first, but didn't mind much later as it gave him tons of inspiration for breaking all the unwritten laws the book didn't contain. Plus it gave him a pretty good picture of the worst that could happen if things didn't work out the right way.  
Demotion, or the denial of any future promotion was a pretty severe sentence that only the Hokage or the Council could make.

_'Now you actually show some booksmarts?'  
'Shut uuup.'_

The blonde could only imagine how nerve wreaking the proposition the examinator had made was to those who didn't know as he saw 5 more teams leave through the front door. After 5 more minutes though it was getting old and apparantly either Naruto or one of his clones had gotten bored. Another loud Boom! echoed through the classroom and everyone turned their attention to Gaara. The red-head just sat there, motionlessly, arms crossed, looking at Ibiki as if nothing was going on, but the black smoke coming from beneath his chair suggested otherwise. Promptly two more teams quit. After they left Ibiki had a satisfied smirk on his face.

"Now, for the final question."Genin frowned their eyebrows and squeezed their pens in anticipation. "You all pass."

Naruto didn't listen to the man's explanation, he was too busy analysing his rival's hunter's defenses. None of the three clones that had been intently watching the final explosive note go off had noticed any sign of the spontaneous shield of sand the young red-head possessed. When the smoke cleared, the clone who had placed the note could confirm there was a hole the size of a fist in the chair. Through it, Gaara's black pants were visible. A small portion of it was apparantly singed away in the blast, giving the clone a _good_ look of the Sand nin's right ass cheeck. From down below on the ground the clone was witness to what must have been an anatomical mystery. Instead of just one, Gaara seemed to posses multiple butt cracks. As in his buttocks was covered with little cracks like the ones you can find on broken ceramic objects. Seconds later however they were gone, whatever damage that had been done seemed repaired and to the naked eye there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary about the red-head's heiney. It all just kept adding up to the mystery that was Gaara.

Meanwhile some crazy female jounin had entered the room, smashing through the third story window and introduced herself as Mitarashi Anko. The blonde threw another look at Lee.  
_'... God, I definitely need to thank that woman'_

_

* * *

_

AN: Yeah I know Lee can use chakra, what would otherwise be the point of opening the gates? I just felt I had to say something about that in the Kabuto card thing.

If anybody would think of the comment that Naruto's mini ninja clones that were jumping around in the exam should have been spotted by Ibiki or one of the observing chuunin, just they imagine they did , but didn't know the source/creator. Ibiki himself however probably wouldn't mind much. Sadistic bastard probably would've enjoyed it.

I'd like to thank my beta readers Ibozun and Kouri Noyami for their help. Without them I'ld probably end up giving a lot of my literate readers headaches or the intention to burn me on a stake.

Next chapter might take a while. Thanks for reading(, I like reviewers and try to answer most of their questions.)

K


	9. Chapter 9

If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't be writing this stuff. I'd probably be sitting in my office, smoking a lot of pot and thinking of how much the "I hearth/hate Sasuke" t-shirts brought up while my army of animator slaves toils away at drawing some freakish über mega secret move I came up with last night. Not that it would make the show, but it'd just be cool for me to see.

I'm not doing those things, so ...

* * *

One hour to prepare. Go home, pack your things for five days of survival in area 44, better known as the Forest of Death, maybe say goodbye to your loved ones for the very last time, report back here and get ready for the extremely hostile environment that awaits you. Anko made it all sound so simple. Simple, yet totally horrifying. 

Packing had been the easy part. Naruto had foreseen the possibility of a survival test of several days and now only had to readjust the quantity of his supplies to the length of the assignment. He had stopped buying in explosive notes, so those weren't an issue. After he had gotten acquainted with the process of creating sealed tags through one of Gai's excellent tutorials he had gotten an instant interest in the subject. As a kid he had always loved the little paper notes that exploded, spewed out huge amounts of black smoke or sounded alarms when somebody passed by. The downside on them though being the price most shopkeepers dared charge for them. When he finally made genin he was allowed to buy them at the Konoha shinobi armory, which offered everything a ninja could need at fair prices. The bloody things still cost bundle's of ryou though.

Making them yourself however was dirt cheap. The only thing you required was a piece of sticky paper -the so called ninja Post-It notes-, some ink, a pencil and a medium chakra capacity with some good control. Total cost: one fiftieth of what they charged anywhere.

Once again the Semi-Public Shinobi Library of Konoha had supplied him with everything the aspiring young blond could have hoped for. This time it had come in the form of "Student of the Seals, part I". Kazumo had recommended it on the part that it had been written by Sandaime Hokage himself back when he was a chuunin. It was the first of a series of 5, a series which was apparently so complete that no more great works concerning the subject had been made after the final book was published. Despite all the praise the librarian gave to the series, the first book was the only one Naruto was allowed to borrow. Kazumo himself just had access up to the second one in the series. He had only heard how truly amazing the things were listed in book four through murmurs of the special jounin among the staff.

So far the principle to create his notes was simple. You had the main part of the seal, describing the effect you wanted and then there was the activation part. Several other things could be added as well. Stuff like delays, longevity, range and all kinds of other stuff that would fit the creator's needs. Needless to say the the Konoha Fire Department personnel had nearly all gotten a heart attack the day Naruto had finally mastered the timer principle in conjunction with the Smoke seal.

Getting back on subject we see our hero back in his apartment packing an extra set of kunai, another roll of steel wire and a small sleeping bag. He took a look at his rations and deftly decided that the two cups of instant ramen wouldn't last him any longer then dinner later on tonight. Realizing there was no way for him to take enough meals with him to last him through the rest, his eyes fell on an sink. The only question was, how was he gonna fit _that_ in his small pack.

**(scene break, back at area 44)**

"Jeezes Naruto, can't you just act normal for once?"  
"What are you talking about Kiba?"  
"That thing you've got hanging tied behind your backpack."  
"You mean my 14 inch durable non-stick, carbon steel wok and lid with natural wooden knob?"  
Naruto asked with a salesman's voice.  
The Inuzuka just frowned and stared at him for a second.  
"... Yes."  
"What about it?"  
"It looks big, heavy and bothersome," the lazy voice of Shikamaru came from behind him.  
"Meh, could have done worse."  
"Yeah, he could have brought fifty cups of instant ramen!" the dog user exclaimed.  
"See. By the way Shikamaru, it looks like Chouji wants you to carry something," Naruto smiled while nodding his head in the direction behind the Nara to the oncoming Akamichi.  
Shikamaru just sighed and muttered something about "troublesome" before turning around to greet his teammate who promptly put a ten pound cooling box in his hands.  
"Hi Naruto-kun," Hinata greeted positioning herself between him and her teammate.  
"Hinata-chan! Hey, you guys are packing awfully light," the still orange clad genin noticed.

("Still", since he had been getting growth spurts a few weeks ago. Apparently good nutrition caused by different food other then ramen and breakfast cereal could have those effects. Not to mention the more rigorous and somewhat coordinated training his body had underwent the last months making him more buffed. Naruto now would have actually looked somewhat impressive to his former classmates had it not been for his now too small and uncomfortable looking jumpsuit made him come over even more clownish then he had before.)

"We're a recon-team. So Kurenai-sensei has trained us to fend for ourselves in the wild. Kiba and Akamaru are excellent hunters and Shino also has great survival abilities."  
"Heh, then this should be a piece of cake for you guys."  
"You betcha! It'll be like a camping trip where we get to beat up people. And with our team's extended senses we'll be able to avoid or track down anyone we want," Kiba sounded a little too enthusiastic.  
"Speaking of which, now that we're all here," Naruto looking at everybody in the rookie nine that had assembled together, "I take it you're all gonna steer clear from Gaara, that red-head from the Sand?"  
Looks between the members of each team were exchanged and aside from Kiba and Sasuke, there weren't a lot of positive faces among them.

"Heh, what's the matter Naruto? Afraid of a little sandman?" the dog user teased.  
"Believe me Kiba, that guy isn't normal. Besides, you heard Kabuto, not a single scratch after every mission, all the way up to A-rank."  
"Yeah, he looks really scary too. With those huge bags under those small eyes. It's like he hasn't slept in days," the blond kunoichi offered.  
"Well that and the fact that even his teammates seem to be scared of him sometimes does make him look like someone I'd rather leave alone," her lazy teammate threw into the conversation.  
"Don't worry about us, Naruto-kun. I'll keep an eye out for them," the young Hyuuga heiress smiled. Hearing at least one member on every team would watching out for the Sand team put Naruto at ease. That was until Anko made her presence known once again.

"Alright you brats, listen up! These are the rules of this exam. Behind this fence lies Area 44, maybe better known as the Forest of Death. Before entering you will be given one of these scrolls. The object of this test is to get it's matching opposite from another team. Only then may you proceed to the tower in the middle of the forest. There is a 5 day limit to this exam. Any team trying to enter the tower after that will find themselves before closed doors. Each team will separately collect its scroll in that tent, after all the members hand in one of these consent forms."

"What are those for?" a nervous Rain genin asked.  
"Simple. The forms state that you are partaking in this test willingly and that whatever might happen to you during the second exam will not under the responsibility of Konoha. In other words, this is the part is where people will start getting killed. The paper is so that we can get away with it," the full busted Anbu grinned. "Are there any other questions? ... Yes?"  
"Just one. Is there any good game in there? I'm starving already," a young blond among the participants asked, a foxy grin plastered on his face. Anko simply responded with her own grin and flicking her kunai right past the kid's left cheek. The throw had looked nonchalant, but appeared not to lack in any precision. A thin line of blood trickled down Naruto's face, revealing the blade indeed had sliced through his skin, despite the genin's lack of reaction.  
"I thought hunting down each other would have been game enough for you brats," Anko suddenly appeared behind him, holding a kunai near his throat. "Besides, in this forest, most of the animals will most likely be trying to eat you," she then whispered in Naruto's ear, still loud enough for those around to hear, before licking the fine line of blood from his cheek.

----

Today had been a fine day for Sarutobi Hokage. True, the Chuunin Exam did always bring a greater number of Anbu security reports due to the large number of foreign ninja inside the village, but since today the first and second tests started a large number of them was already back on their way home and from the other teams only the jounin leaders needed to be monitored. So far, there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. Finishing the last of the paperwork, he reached for his hat, ready to leave until suddenly he heard a lustful laughing.  
"I take it you have noticed the new hot baths on the west banks, Jiraya?" the Third asked in the direction of the open window.  
No answer.  
"Jiraya?"  
Only silence resounded, except for the occasional girlish giggle.  
"JIRAYA!"  
The laughter immediately stopped and turned into the sound of wooden sandals colliding with the stone roof.

"Erhm ... you called Sarutobi-sensei?"  
"I called you well over a month ago. I had hoped my message would 've interested you more then this Jiraya," the Third sounded disappointed. In Jiraya or in himself seemed unclear to his former student.  
"Gomen, their were some activities in a certain organization that required my personal attention. I'll give you my final report on that first thing tomorrow, now I would like to hear what you meant when you wrote me."  
"Well, that's kind of why I called for you, my old student. Since you never told me that much about it and it's not exactly on record here, I can't be sure what we're dealing with. All I remember is something about the way the Okugi Souken molded their chakra and .. adapting the workings of jutsus," the old man half asked.  
"Hmmm," the long haired ninja smiled thinking back at when he spoke of it with his teacher, "yeah, something like that. I didn't know much more about it myself back then. I've come up with a little more during my travels. Let me tell you what I've discovered so far."

"The Okugi Souken or Secret Creators, also known as Lords of the Hidden Purpose, was a bloodline that should have appeared in history about 800 years ago, lasted about 7 generations and then totally disappeared. In short, they must have been ninjutsu masters. Ancient mission reports from Wind country that have been made 'public' because historical values and doubtful content talk about a clan somewhere between Fire and Stone Country that didn't use handseals. Grass documents of the same time period, talking about the same area report about the same, they also mention that when they did use seals they seemed to produce different effects then the Grass knew those sets of seals should."

"What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Well you have to keep in mind that we're talking about more then 500 years ago. Ninjutsu was only at the start of it's development. But a basic principle is already clear; every technique has a unique set of seals. So since there was a limited number of jutsus in the world and it was likely most people all knew the same basic jutsus. Theirs often just .. acted different. A concrete example I've come across was a battle about 600 years ago where one of them was able to fend off his attackers with custom versions of a waterclone. Apparently he managed to make them consist out of boiling water, acid and .. his own urine," the sanin somewhat mumbled at the end.

"... Interesting," the Hokage said raising his eyebrow and leaning his chin on his thumbs.  
"So what can you tell me now?"  
"There is someone in the village who might fit this description. Recently he has been showing quite some promise in the field of ninjutsu. He can perform several techniques without the use of seals and has developed his own version of Kage Bunshin."  
"Hmm, jounin then huh. Anybody I know?"  
"Barely," Sarutobi smiled, "but I think you should know him well." With that he opened the drawer in his desk and slided over Naruto's file.

Jiraya picked it up and read. For a long time he said nothing, then suddenly he whispered " ... Demon!"

----

They had been jumping through the treetops for several minutes now. When they eventually came back at ground level Sasuke came to a halt, Naruto immediately headed for the bushes.

"Where you going?" Sasuke asked.

"Gotta release the seamonster."

"Shouldn't we stick together? Sasuke?"

"You just wanna catch me with my pants down," the blond answered in his place before vanishing from view.

Mere moments later Naruto found out that she wasn't the only one with that particular desire. His hand hadn't even made it all the way to his zipper before the woodland creature shaped clone he had created seconds earlier noticed movement behind him. Not taking any unnecessary risks he immediately replaced himself with another clone which went on about his business.

Instants later Naruto saw the hidden Rain nin jump into action. Noticing how the offender never seemed to have planned to give him the chance to fight back, Naruto had no problem getting down and dirty himself. Right before the genin made his move to knock him out from th rear, the clone made a backflip right over the enemy ninja. Landing on the opponents' shoulders it was easy to bring him off balance by exerting enough force on his legs for another jump. This maneuver effectively sent the offender face down into the puddle of kage bunshin no urine.

It might have been because of his mask and rebreather that the Rain nin wasn't totally grossed out, but the fact remained the guy wasn't just gonna lay still and take the beating. Rolling over to a stand and turning to face his apparently not so helpless victim he drew a kunai but was surprised once again when less then a second later his own throat was held at knife point.

"Drop it," the orange clad boy in front of him said. Some extra pressure applied to his neck made sure he didn't need to be told twice. Only a muttered "Unlucky" was heard before the weapon fell to the ground with a thud.

"Good. Now hold real still."

Naruto's hand moved like lighting. Releasing his own kunai he immediately pulled back his right hand and delivered a devastating blow to the back of the guy's head. This sent him flying to his clone, which made sure that he was out cold by slamming his knee into the genin's forehead protector with enough force to dispel himself. Naruto himself had meanwhile caught his own weapon before it had hit the ground and now walked over to the unconscious form of the Rain nin.

"Hmmm, I always wanted one of these," he said, taking off the fallen enemy's rebreather.

Going through the rest of the young man's belongings, taking whatever he found useful, he was disappointed not to find a scroll on him.

----

'Damnit, what's taking the dobe so long," were the thoughts of a black haired Uchiha.

"Sasuke, should we go check up on Naru-" the girls question was interrupted as suddenly a ninja in a beige outfit appeared between them. Sasuke's combat reflexes immediately kicked in, drawing a kunai and three shuriken between his fingers, while Sakura just hastily jumped out of harms way.

A look of incomprehension crept on their faces however when they saw their assailant just collapsed in on himself and his hands appeared to be bound behind his back with some steel wire.  
Looking back to the place where the ninja had originated from they both saw Naruto coming out of the bushes with a face that showed he wasn't happy about something.

"Naruto! What was that good for? You scared the hell out of us" Sakura complained.  
"Good. That guy was a lot sneakier just a minute ago, so if an unconscious opponent scares you already, you better realize now just how serious this test is," he answered as he stepped out of the bushes.  
"Scroll?" Sasuke asked in his emotionless voice.  
"Nha, go that way," he pointed, "I've got a clone searching his trail. I'll catch up in a minute."  
"What are you going t-" Sakura stopped herself from finishing her sentence when she heard a familiar zipping sound.  
"I still have to pee," the genin grinned. His teammates just shuddered and went on to find his clone.

When the three genin were once again reunited Naruto sported a look of relief on his face. His teammates decided against asking him about it.  
"So we're just going to follow his trail and hope it leads back to his teammates?" Sakura asked.  
"Pretty much, unless we find a trail of two other people first. Then we might be a little early at their rendez-vous point and be able to give them a proper welcome."

A few minutes later they had their goal in sight: two lone Rain nin about 60 feet apart hiding in the treetops.

----

Mitarashi Anko, special jounin of the Hidden Leaf village Konoha was looking bored. Holding the second test of the Chuunin Exam in the Forest of Death had it's ups and downs for the examinator. The good part being that it didn't require a lot of work, the downside was that it still took 5 days which mostly just required her to guard the testing area from any outsiders, so one would rarely see anything interesting and couldn't keep an eye on the little wannabe ninjas under evaluation.

In other words, it plainly just wasn't much fun.

If only she'd remembered to bring some dango, she would've at least been able to munch on something. This is about the time that she suddenly noticed something brown and furry moving in the grass.

"Ooh kawai, a little guinea pig." Slowly she moved herself down the rock she had been sitting on and called the little critter closer.

"Come here you little thing. That's right, come closer," she encouraged the small rodent's approach. "Come on. Yeah. I don't wanna hurt you. I just want to feed you to my pet snake."

Never had she seen a forest creature move like that. Suddenly the little animal stretched itself on his hind legs and jumped way back. When it reached it's apex it backflipped and a small plume of smoke followed. A blond, orange wearing Leaf nin was visible through the tiny smoke cloud.

"I don't think I would be very nutritious."

Not showing any sign of surprise the brunette just said; "You know leaving the test area before the end of the exam gets you disqualified."

"Good thing I never entered it then", the genin smiled. "Although those Rain nin who still think we're holding their teammate hostage right now would probably claim otherwise."

Anko pondered upon this before quickly answering "Hehe. I take it you are Uzumaki Naruto, our new notorious Kage Bunshin user then."  
Naruto's face visibly brightened. "So we're famous now? Wauuw! That's so cool!"  
"Alright, alright, shut up already," she resisted the urge to slap some sense into the clone and dispelling it. "Why are you here?"  
"Oh yeah. Well I just noticed you still haven't opened our thank you note."  
"Uh? 'the hell?"

The clone simply zipped open his jacket and tabbed the inside of it. Anko immediately took the hint and looked inside her long leather trench coat, accidentally (or not) revealing more then she usually did of all that what was held together by her fishnet shirt.

There she found an envelope, held in place with a sticky shinobi note.  
"You slipped this on me when I held you at knife point?" she asked while opening the container with a kunai.  
"Pretty much."  
"Hehe. You sure got balls kid, I'll give you that."

"_Dear miss Mitarashi,_

_I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for writing your review of Maito Gai's book 'Super Excellent Speedtraining'. Meeting the author and his student Rock Lee have made me realize you prevented me from making the mistake of my life and I cannot leave a debt unpaid. Therefor I'd like to present you with these Free Meal coupons from Ichiraku Ramen. Please say hello to the old man and his daughter for me if you use them._

_Sincerely,_

_Uzumaki Naruto_

_PS: I also apologize for whatever actions I may have performed to draw your attention._"

When she finished reading Anko just burst out laughing. When she could finally stop herself she tucked her gifts away in her jacket.

"Hehe. ... hehehehehe .. he. You're funny kid."  
"Thanks .. I think", the clone answered.

For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence as none of the two knew something to say. This wouldn't have been much of a Naruto fanfic however if that would have lasted for long.

"WHAT THE FUCK! Shiiiiiiit!" the clone instantly shouted for no apparent reason Anko could perceive.  
"What is it?" she asked.  
"We just got eaten by a 90 foot snake!"

This immediately got the young woman's attention. Before she could respond anything though she was interrupted by a chuunin.

----

"Come now Jiraya, I remember you being wiser then to call Naruto a demon", the Hokage sounded somewhat angry and disappointed.

"No no no no. Not like that. Demons! During my research on the Okugi Souken I happened upon an old document concerning demons. As you know, several hundreds of years before the founding of Hidden Leaf the world was plagued by lesser daemons, nowhere near as powerful as the great tailed beasts, but still more then a match for most ninja of those times.

What I found out was that every clan, village or settlement had their own ways of dealing with the hard to kill outsiders. There are reports of people who used some sort of chakra absorbing weapons which sucked up their demonic essence. Some of them effectively became the legendary items we know now. Others managed to trap the fiends into rooms and seal off all the exits. Sometimes enough damage of an opposing element would already do. And one single clan was rumored to seal them into human beings. Now what I read was that that last particular method was supposed to always kill the person used as the container."

"I see ... You're thinking these two might be one and the same clan?"

"Could be, the place and time frame of the first match the second's. Their might have been people who survived the 'fusion', or the Douji Shibou no Suitei, as they called it, whose children might have been given somewhat of a resistance to the process, which could have resulted in the bloodline. Or they might have improved their sealing technique, giving the same result. There's a wide range of possibilities. All I really know now is, about 500 years ago the Demon Wars ended and 30 years later the Kesshi clan disappears from history, taking their enormous variety of jutsus with them."

The Third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf kept his emotions about the subject hidden. He was about to reply and ask if the Legendary Toad ninja had any suggestions in what steps to take next when there was a sudden knock on the door. One of Anko's assistants for the exam quickly approached the two older men with a nervous look on his face.

"Hokage-sama. Jiraya-sama" he bowed in respect. "There is something you must see near Area 44. We found the bodies of a team from Grass Country. From the way they were mutilated Anko suspects Orochimaru has infiltrated the Chuunin Exam."

Both men's reaction was instantaneous and seconds later they were already halfway their destination.

----

Naruto was still sulking over the results of his plan. It had all gone off smoothly. First he had Sasuke draw them both out into an open clearing. Once they entered it they both spotted him, holding a kunai to their bound and gagged teammate's throat. Just for good measure he had created another 5 copies of himself and his hostage. Sakura had been keeping herself in the background, checking for any possible genjutsus the two might use. Since negotiations didn't go very smooth the blond had already executed his prisoner 3 times before they finally tossed their scroll over to a lone Naruto. After confirming it was the real deal the Leaf trio instantly all left. All but a single spiky haired kid that continued holding a blade to the masked Rain nin.

It was only three minutes later that the other two genin discovered that these two as well where nothing but clones. The one who was transformed into their teammate however was friendly enough to tell them their last member was still alive and even escorted them to the place where Naruto had left him.

The other clone took off on his own, never to be heard from again.

Yeah, everything went off without a hitch. Except for one thing: it was the wrong bloody scroll!

Both he and Sasuke now carried their own Heaven scroll and were currently discussing their next step of action.

"And I say we just head to that damn tower already."  
"Baka, we still need an Earth scroll before we can enter the tower."  
"Yeah and where do you suggest we get one of those? The central tower is the only place everyone knows about, so everybody else will be go-OOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

This was about the time our hero got separated from his team by a powerful wind attack that sent him right into the mouth of a giant serpent half a mile away.

"WHAT THE FUCK! Shiiiiiiit!"

Suddenly only darkness and warm, slimy gross stuff surrounded Naruto as he was trapped inside the stomach of a giant constrictor snake. He felt himself slowly being pushed further down the reptile's digestive system. Needles to say this experience did not put the genin in a good mood.

"This ... sucks. I am not going to die as a stupid snake snack!" The next moment 8 Kage Bunshin surrounded him on all sides, stretching themselves out as much as possible, giving Naruto some room to operate. Getting up he started flaring his chakra drill. On, off, on, off, .. faster and faster he activated his personal technique.

"This better work now", the thought as he started to increase the amount of chakra and the speed of the rotation. All of a sudden a bright blue light was illuminating the cavern like place that was the predator's gut. Just like before it was accompanied by a deafening screech, like thousands of nails scratching over a giant blackboard.

"Hell yeah! Now die, you vile, cold blooded, limbless, scaled piece of shit!" he shouted, but couldn't hear himself over the technique.

Wasting no further time he quickly moved his arm in a circular motion vertically across the serpent's insides. Barely a seconds later both sides seemed to dislodge from each other, but before there was a lot of noticeable change the entire animal had already disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Amidst it all stood a heavy breathing Naruto, clenching his fist in pain. Opening his hand to inspect it he noticed it was covered in chakra burns.

"That's ... odd," the genin heaved. "Last time ... it was bigger .. purple .. and it didn't hurt so fucking much," he uttered between breaths.

Deciding to file this information for later use, he took off his backpack and bandaged his hand before heading back to his team.

Sasuke wasn't faring too well against this new opponent. He had already activated his Sharingan and was still only barely able to keep up with this opponent. The man's taijutsu level was way above his own, as he felt his assailant was still holding back. Ninjutsu proved equally useless. 'For fuck sake, I just tied him to a three and his him straight in the face with a Karyu Endan. And he's laughing! Even if this guy isn't just a genin, that attack should have turned him to ash!'

He had already given up his scroll and wasted most of his chakra, on top of that, the Grass nin ... let's make that the now self proclaimed Sound nin, seemed invulnerable. So saying things weren't looking good for Team 7 was a bit of an understatement.

"Kukuku, Sasuke-kun. Didn't I tell you, you are my prey. And prey should always be running, trying to get away and not thinking of anything else. But perhaps I have not truly shown you what kind of predator you are dealing with now." With that the attacker took his kunai and sliced through the skin of his thumb. About 5 seals later the man was standing on the head of a giant snake.

Instantly the spirit of the prey entered Sasuke. He dodged the initial attack and proceeded to Sakura's location, grabbing her by the arm and getting the hell away from the giant anaconda.

Alas, even flight seemed to be to no avail. Only five minutes later the young Uchiha had only succeeded in exhausting himself, while the gargantuan was still hot on their trail. Then finally Sakura's foot got stuck between some tree branches. The raven haired boy desperately tried to pull her lose, but the giant snake head descended down upon them within seconds. Instantly the lives of both genin flashed briefly before their eyes until suddenly all they could see was smoke.

"You two pussies alright?" one of the dozen or so Naruto's grinned at them while holding back the enormous beast.  
".. Naruto!"

That single moment of distraction however proved to be fatal as the mysterious ninja's neck elongated drastically, propelling his head towards Sasuke and latched on to his shoulders. The pain rushed over the black eyed boy instantly and a scream was heard throughout the forest right before he slumped down on the branch. The snake user wasn't given a lot of time to gloat however as several dozens of kunai and shuriken were sent flying to critical spots along his neck. The ninja's head immediately retreated back to the safety of the rest of his body making several acrobatic twists and turns, but not without having sustained a variety of minor cuts and scratches all over his throat.

"Ugh. Insignificant little worm. I should kill you for that", he spat out at Naruto while bringing his hand to his neck.  
"What did you do to Sasuke-kun!" a hysterical Sakura shouted.  
"I gave him a little parting gift. That's all."  
"You stay away from him!"  
"Hehe, no problem. Sasuke will be coming to me soon enough. After all, he wants power, and he knows I can give it to him."  
"You, yo-"  
"No time," the Narutos exclaimed. One of them quickly picked up the Uchiha's prone form and another grabbed Sakura's hand while the rest of them split in three, turning into various copies of Team 7. When the smoke cleared all the trios were running off in different directions.

----

"Hmmmm, this is definitely the work of Orochimaru," the Hokage muttered as he inspected the bodies of the Grass team. The skin of their faces had been peeled off, no doubt to be used as part of his disguise.

"Yes, but why would he interfere in a genin exam?" the toad sanin wondered.  
"Perhaps it has something to do with one of our more prestigious candidates. The Kazekage's son is partaking this year."  
"Mitarashi-san believes it has something to do with one of Team 7's members."  
"Why is that Biru-san?" the old man asked the Chuunin.  
"She was talking to a Kage Bunshin of one of the participants earlier. Apparently the clone complained about his creator being eaten by a giant snake. The clone is guiding her to the team's position as we speak sir."  
"Sarutobi ... should we cancel the exam?"

The old man thought for a minute.

"No. We can't afford to lose our face in front of the other villages right now. Our political situation is too insecure right now for us to show any kind of weakness," a sigh escaped the village leader's mouth. "Biru, Jiraya's presence in the Leaf is not to be made public. I take it you both understand. For now I will dispatch the Anbu to secure the area."

-

He quietly eased into the water and took a seat, a cup of hot sake in one hand and stereo remote control in the other. This is as close to heaven as you can get on earth, he thought, with the exception of one thing - he was alone. Immediately he felt better and closed his eyes, sliding his forehead protector over both of them, letting his silver hair flow freely over his head, trying to relax. The sound of Richard Marx's voice was softly carrying him into relaxation. He slipped a little deeper into the water and moved his head from side to side, trying to get the pain in his shoulders to go away.

Some time later he opened his eyes and was surprised to see the object of his passion opposite him in the tub, staring at him and smiling. The dolphin on her necklace was glistening beautifully in the sun, and delivered his mind into temptation. Her normally somewhat curling black hair was already wet and now was the only thing that covered her pear shaped breasts from view. He felt her foot rubbing his calf muscles as she smiled ever deeper, losing him in her beautiful red eyes. Then he heard her angelic voice say he probably needed someone to rub his shoulders and before he knew it, she was moving gracefully across the tub. She began massaging his neck and shoulders, continually assuring him that she could make all the tension disappear.

After about five minutes of neck work, she moved to his back, making small circles with her fingers and lightly tickling him with her fingernails. He warned her that this was dangerous, as he was becoming aroused. She laughed and assured him that she would take care not to excite him, but they both knew, and hoped, that this was a lie. He could hardly keep still as she stroked his lower back, dragging her nails across the sensitive parts of his buttocks. He was in heaven.

Anxiously the gray haired jounin turned the page of Icha Icha Paradise 6: Snuggling in Sand Country and had another sip of his tea. He would enjoy the next five days as much as he possibly could. For the first time in 6 months he had an entire week to himself without the constant nagging of those three little idiots. He often thought to himself he should have never passed them. They were a lousy team and technically he should have failed them. However, as the sole Sharingan user in the village, training Sasuke was the least he could do to honor Obito. Besides, the kid had enormous potential and was ready on all other personal levels. If only he'd brighten up every once in a while. Naruto used to have that effect on him, but lately ...

Aaargh, what was he doing. Even now that they were nowhere around they were whining in his mind. He physically shook the mental picture out of his head and scanned the page to where he had stopped.

----

"Anko-san, we caught up with our team and have escaped from the snake bastard. However, Sasuke has been bitten. He's unconscious and we're carrying him right now."  
"He bit him? ... Does he have any strange markings on that place now?"

A few seconds later the small clone on her shoulder frowned his face.  
"He's got some kind of seal. Looks like three commas circling each other. Kinda like a mastered Sharingan without the inner iris."  
"Shit. We're too late then."  
"What do you mean?"  
"He's already been given Orochimaru's Heaven curse seal. He will be able to manipulate your teammate now."  
"Manipulate how?"  
"I don't have time for 21 questions now kid. Do you have any idea on Orochimaru's position?"  
"One of us last spotted him about 3 miles north to north-east from here, he was moving west at a regular pace. Now, what can we do about Sasuke?"  
"Right now, nothing. He'll probably be out of it for the rest of the day, if he survives the initial process that is."  
"What!"  
"I'm going to be straight with you kid. There's a nine in ten chance he won't make it. So I suggest you find some place where you all can recover for the next 24 hours. Stay safe, don't let your guard down and get your ass to the central tower as fast as you can. And I think now it's about time for us to say goodbye."  
"But what abou-" the little clone uttered right before he got thrown into a tree and disappeared.

----

"We'll camp here," Naruto deftly said as he laid the Uchiha down under a hollowed out tree trunk.  
"How is Sasuke-kun doing?"  
"Sleeping, drooling and a little quieter then usual. He's fine for now. His breathing is stable but he's got a weak pulse," he reassured her, withholding the information he had gotten from Anko.  
"Look, I'm going to see what I can scrounge together for dinner in this place. Will you be alright for a couple of hours?"  
There was no answer from the pink haired kunoichi. She looked shocked at the occurrence, her breathing was hard and she was staring at some point in space, on the verge of breaking out in tears.

"Sakura? Sakura! Hey Pinky!" he finally shouted. There was no time for this crap right now. They had to set up a safety perimeter, cover their tracks and generally hide everything that could betray their presence. "I asked you if you were gonna be alright for a couple a hours."  
"Eh? Oh. I'll be fine Naruto. I will set up some traps and a few genjutsus to hide us from view."

The rest of the evening was uneventful. Naruto had come back with the cleaned remains of a medium sized boar and a collection of mushrooms. Sakura's face betrayed a torrent of emotions when she saw it. Sadness, disgust, fear of poisoning, lack of appetite and surprise where the only ones Naruto could make out. He didn't care, he had other things to think about now. Like what part of the carcass he was going to cut off, or what this Orochimaru want from Sasuke, or how such a small single character seal could have such power behind it. Then there was Anko's reaction. Though she had given Sasuke only a 10 survival chance, she didn't look very worried about him. Maybe she knew more then she had let on. Or the differences in his technique when he first discovered it and when he cut open that snake. It didn't matter, as long as it took his mind of the possibility that his teammate would not make it to the next day.

So he prepared dinner for him and Sakura, giving his full attention to cutting the meat, getting the mushrooms just right and trying to keep the smoke and smell to a minimum.

* * *

AN: Okay guys, sorry for the slow update, I've just been frustrated over a lot of personal issues lately and haven't had a lot of time or inspiration. I originally figured I could go as far as the prelims in this chapter, but stuff just keeps on piling up. Right now I'm just tired of it and decided I might as well publish what I got so far so at least you guys have an update. 

Kesshi: "prepared for death" / "do-or-die spirit"

Douji Shibou no Suitei: Presumption of Simultaneous Death

RnR people, it's what keeps me updating.

Second AN: Bob, Himadesu and randomreader; I tried somewhat cleaning this chapter somewhat since writing the next one seems to be going really slow. Thanks for the constructive criticism, I appreciate that.  
Everybody who wants to take it upon themselves to do a rewrite of any of my previous chapters or just plain clean that stuff out a little bit is more then welcome to ofcourse and can be assured to be given credit and have his/her work replace my earlier chapters.

Laterz people.


	10. Chapter 10

Hinata and her team had been traveling at at high pace for the last half hour. They had already acquired the right second scroll from an older, unfortunate Leaf team that had set off Shino's leech trap. Right now they were on their way to the central tower, making good time until suddenly something came into the range of Hinata's Byakugan.

"Shino, Kiba. There are two teams in a clearing 150 feet 43 degrees west of us."  
They slowly came to a halt. Kiba and Akamaru sniffed the air, while Shino just stared at the position Hinata described.  
"Who are they, Hinata?" Kiba asked, having been unable to pick up a scent strong enough to identify anyone.

"It's the Sand team and one of the teams from Rain," she answered as veins swelled up in her face, taking her Byakugan to a higher level.  
"He. Perfect. What you guys say to checking out if that guy really is as good as Naruto says he is?"  
"Favorable," was all that escaped the bug user's lips.  
"Demo .. I told Naruto I'd stay away. And his chakra system, it's .. discomforting to look at."  
"Hinata, we're not gonna fight them. We're just gonna take a peek. If he's really that strong it's best we know what to expect just in case we have to fight him later right?" Kiba offered one of his rare pearls of wisdom, normally he needed those to convince Shino of his views.

"Well, well, well, isn't this a sight for sore eyes," the taller Rain nin spoke. Scars covered the lower half of the young man's face, yet he already looked confident of his soon to come victory. "Three little Sand genin that look like they're straight from the academy. Looks like we're in luck boys," he smiled at his two teammates. "And so are you three little farts. I'm in a good mood, so hand over your scroll right now and I might not mutilate your bodies entirely beyond recognition."  
The Rain nin's teammates gave a chuckle at their leader's proposal, but the young man was too annoyed by the Sand team's lack of reaction to appreciate it.  
Gaara just kept standing there, arms crossed and his serious, uncaring look never leaving his face. Temari and Kankuro took a simple step back and eyed the redhead cautiously.

"I see you've made your choice. Very well. Joro Senbon!" As he yelled the Rain nin drew the five umbrellas from his back and tossed them in the air. Sixty feet in the air the umbrellas opened up and started spinning violently. "Looks like rain", he grinned right after he finished his handseals. Then suddenly the sky was filled with barrage upon barrage of gray steel. Thousands of senbon needles shot out of the hidden compartments of the airborne umbrellas and headed straight to one target: the scrawny looking kid with huge bags under his eyes and a giant gourd upon his back.

The massive amount of dust that was kicked up when his weapons had come down blocked the Rain ninja's view the undoubtedly massive carnage he had created. He didn't mind. He knew what damage his technique would do. Any second now he would be greeted with the sight of internal and external organs littered across the ground. Blood, needles, pieces of skin and bone fragments would be scattered around the surface of the earth and chances were at least one of his teammates would lose his lunch again. He really didn't mind much at all.  
That was until the dust settled once more and it became visible that apparently not everything had gone according to plan. Beneath the few swirling sand particles that were still floating in the air, there stood Gaara, surrounded by a giant cocoon of sand that now looked like a huge pin cushion. The genin from Rain wasted no time and immediately fired off his remaining senbons at the cracks between the shield of sand. His attempt proved futile however as another thick plate of sand just simply shot out of the ground and guarded Gaara from the oncoming projectiles.

For a second one could read the doubt on the taller genin's face. Should he try to go in for close range or just run like hell away from this kid. A single moment later he no longer had any choice in the matter as Gaara moved his sand and the contained senbons on his unnamed opponent, effectively skewering him and holding him in place.

---

Hinata couldn't bare to look as the remains of bones, bodily fluids and internal as well as external organs rained down across the clearing. She focused her gaze on the red haired boy, but avoided looking him strait in the eyes while she did her best to ignore the screams of the remaining Rain nin. She readjusted her Byakugan and focused on the chakra circulatory system of this Gaara of the Desert. It somehow reminded her of Naruto's, but this one was wilder, darker and a lot more chaotic. As if it was constantly being disturbed by something. Naruto had been right, there was something very wrong with this boy. Even Kiba, who was never someone to admit fear, whispered words of caution, especially after Akamaru's whimpering. Shino on the other hand just showed to be his usual, collected self. No one really ever knew what went on in the mind of the Aburame. If it was true that the eyes were the windows to the soul, the Aburame kept the curtains shut at all times. Despite that fact, the team didn't need any more words or looks to decide what their next action was: Retreat, as fast and quiet as possible.

---  
The aspiring young student of the Green Beast of Konoha, Rock Lee, witnessed the scene in front of him. The beautiful Sakura-chan was keeping a team of Sound genin from getting to her unconscious teammate. Their other member, the flaming Naruto-kun who had requested Gai-sensei's aid in training, was nowhere to be seen. For a minute Lee contemplated the idea that perhaps the bright genin had not made it. Both Leaf nin looked in bad shape. Scratches and bruises covered Sakura-chan and Sasuke-kun didn't look any better, lying there on the forest floor. The valiant Azure beast of the Leaf could not idly stand by at this unsporting and unnecessary brutal behavior. So he jumped down from his hiding spot to a few paces to the front left of the blossoming pink kunoichi.

"Lee!" she almost shouted in surprise, although no doubt relieved to see a friendly face.  
"Yosh! My beautiful cherry blossom remembers my name!" the boy thought a little too loud. "Have no fear Sakura-chan, I told you I would protect you with my life." He stuck up his thumb a flashed a blinding smile.  
"Heh, another little Leaf nin to play with," Zaku sadistically smiled to his teammates.  
"I'll take care of him," the bandaged Dosu spoke in a calm voice. No second later he was charging towards Lee.

The young taijutsu master was not so easily taken by surprise. He had witnessed the Sound nin's attack on Kabuto before the start of the first exam and deducted that it wouldn't be in his best interest to try to block Dosu's attacks. Instead he just moved his entire body closer to his attacker's chest, completely bypassing his guard and really bringing himself face to face with his opponent. The bowlcut boy smoothly pinned Dosu's offending arm to his side with his left lower arm and delivered a devastating blow to the offender's face with his right hand. The impact sent him skipping over the ground back towards his teammates. Lee never gloated, but if he did, there was no time for it now as Zaku had already sent a massive shockwave at him. There was barely any time to dodge, yet Lee still found himself jumping towards Sakura, shielding her from the blast.

The two Leaf genin collided into each other, their wasn't any weird romantic staring however. This was a serious fight and they were aware of that fact. Both of them had someone precious to protect and failure wasn't an option for either of them. Lee swiftly jumped up and took a protective stance in front of Sakura. The pink haired girl didn't plan on just idly standing by this fight, certainly not when she saw Kin moving towards Sasuke's location. So before Lee even knew it, she had moved away to intercept. Zaku saw an easy target for another one of his soundbursts and was already following the movements of Sakura with his arms. This hadn't escaped the watchful eyes of Rock Lee however. This time around he took a more indirect approach. Moving away from Sakura, he flung two kunais Zaku's way, forcing him on the defensive.  
Sakura was meanwhile tangling one on one with the Sound girl. Her single kunai wasn't very on par with the dual senbon's the girl was wielding, as she was already covered with numerous scratches but she still put up her absolute best to stop her from reaching the unconscious Sasuke.

While his teammates were busy with the two Leaf nin, Dosu was scrambling back to his feet with a mean look on his face. "Zaku, keep that giant eyebrow of my back. I'm going in for the Uchiha."  
"No problem," he grinned as he charged up another Zankuha. His answer might have differed if he had known anything about Rock Lee, the paragon of hard work, who stood before him. Lee's eternal smile had now made way for a more serious look. The first Sound ninja was now heading towards Uchiha-san and the only thing that stood in his way was Sakura who was already fighting with another kunoichi. Lee could see by the fire in her eyes that no matter what happened, she wasn't going to allow either of them to pass. For a split second his eyes reached for the heavens before giving an affirmative nod to himself.  
'Gai-sensei, please understand. I have to protect someone precious to me.'  
And then he was gone.

His gaze only on the Uchiha, Dosu was already halfway there. He planned on evading the pink girl and planting one of his kunai firmly in the unconscious boy's hart. He would have his fun with the other two later. Orders came first. A few paces away from the girl and his teammate, he noticed she would not let him pass so easily. She had shifted her balance and was in perfect position to react to either him or Kin. He grabbed his kunai tighter in his hand, ready to slice her gut open and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chin right before he was propelled several yards upward. When the stars in front of his eyes faded he could once again see the blurry green outline of the Azure Beast of the Leaf. For a split second anyway, since less then a moment later the boy's right heel impacted against his chest, speeding his decent significantly and steering him towards Zaku once more. The brown and spiky haired genin was able to cushion the impact of his teammate however with a well placed blast of air from the hollow tubes that ran through his arms.

The sudden interruption surprised Sakura enough to bring her off guard for a split second, which proved to be just enough time for Kin to take her chance to drive one of her senbon in Sakura's shoulder. A small scream of pain escaped from the Leaf girl's throat and that when all hell broke lose.  
From the up to now dormant Uchiha suddenly radiated a massive amount of dark, purple chakra. It felt immense to the surrounding genin. Kin instinctively jumped away from the youngster, back to the safety of her teammates. The crackling energy surrounding Sasuke was too much for her to take, as was the vicious killer instinct he seemed to emanate.

"Rock Lee, you have soiled my honour for the last time. I will show you your assistance here is no longer needed." He then directed his gaze towards the Sound team and for a slight moment, he grinned.

---

"Demo, Hokage-sam-"  
"I said no Anko. Judging by your report it's clear that Orochimaru still has too much control over your curse seal. I admit I'm impressed by your mental resistance, but it is obvious that your body still suffers greatly when he tries to activate it."  
The normally so fierce Anbu captain let her head drop in defeat. She knew Sarutobi was right, but that didn't quench her flaming passion for revenge on her former mentor, that immoral snake bastard.  
"Now to get back to your report, you say one of Naruto's clones guided you to Orochimaru's location."  
"Actually it was more like three of them. After I discarded the first one I met two more of them before I finally found him."  
"I see."

_Anko had been moving at almost full speed for the past few minutes now. She swore under her breath, something about idiot blonds and sense of direction. So far she hadn't found a trace of Orochimaru.  
"Anko-san! This way," came the voice of someone who seemed to match her previous description.  
"Hn. How many of you are there anyway?" she asked somewhat annoyed.  
"We created about 30 as a diversion to get away from that paleface. Most of us are already low on chakra however."  
The young Anbu made a slight frown. Up until now she had believed most rumors of the blonde's talent in the use of Kage Bunshin to be exaggerated, but the serene look on the clone's face told her this was anything but a boast. For a genin, and such a young one at that, to have this level of proficiency in any forbidden jutsu was nothing to be taken lightly.  
"How far is he?" she asked without making any eyecontact.  
"About two miles ahead of us. He's picking up his pace. We should as well, if you want to get to him." _

_For a brief minute there was silence between them until the clone broke it again.  
"Are you sure you can take him on alone?"  
There came no answer from her.  
"Anko-san? Ank-" poof _

_She had no time for this. It was just a clone. What would it know about anything. She sped up again and continued on._

"_You know that's quite an annoying habit you seem to be developing Anko-san."  
"Oh jeezes, not another one," the woman grumbled.  
"Hey, we're trying to help you get this guy."  
"You've helped enough already, kid. Now I suggest you stay away from him before he decides to one day stroll into the village again only to hunt you down and cut you inside out."  
"That bad uh?" He made a long sigh "... Fine", the Naruto's duplicate just simply gave in before saying his goodbye and taking off in another direction._

_Les then five minutes later Anko spotted her target. He was moving at a mellow pace, looking quite certain of himself that no one was following. Just as she was about to engage she heard a whisper not far away. "Wait."  
It was one of those annoying clones again.  
"Goddammit Uzumaki, I told you to stay away from him," she grouched between her teeth.  
"Yeah, but that's not him Anko-san. It must be a clone."  
"What? How do you know?"  
"He's not hurt", he stated flatly.  
"He's injured?"  
"Hardly, but we gave him some cuts and scratches on his neck. I think one of us nicked him pretty good in the ear as well."  
"... You must be one lucky kid. Any ideas on the real one."  
"Must be around. I'll leave that up to you,let me take care of this one."  
"Are you insane! You won't last a second against him."  
"Look do you want to get this guy or not? Every second we can distract the clone is a second you gain on the real one."_

_The Anbu captain seemed to take this in consideration for a second. She knew that under normal circumstances even thinking about the little runt's proposal would be plain ludicrous, but a little battle among clones wasn't really that life threatening for anybody involved. She gave the living shadow a single nod before disappearing in a flash._

"_Orochimaru!"_

_The long black haired figure didn't even turn around to avert the oncoming kunai in the woman's hand. "Anko. What a surprise. I thought you were still fighting my diversion."  
"You're not the only one who can use clones."  
"So I've noticed", the missing sanin snarled between his teeth while going through the intricate patterns of the Snake Fist style. Anko weaved through the attacks, but just when she thought to have seen an opening the nukenin jumped back a little to put some distance between them.  
"What's wrong Orochimaru? Did those little genin wear you out already? You look a little pale, did really you lose that much blood ?" she smirked.  
The serpent summoner didn't hide his annoyance, he soon turned it into a wicked grin though and Anko grabbed her shoulder as burning pain flared over her, forcing her down on her knees._

"_Kukuku Anko-kun. You should know insults won't get you anywhere with me. Now I am curious though... What do you know of the Kage Bunshin brat?"  
"I don't know .. who you're talking about", she answered between breaths, still fighting against the burning seal.  
"Ku ku ku. Still so much spirit, yet still lacking the proper drive. I guess you wouldn't humor me for old times sake either?"  
"You must have been playing with your snakes too much", she spat at his feet.  
"He. Too bad. I had hoped it wouldn't have come to this Anko-kun, but it seems you'll leave me no choice."_

"And that's when I suddenly found myself 30 yards away in the canopy, looking down at Orochimaru grabbing 'me' with a Hidden Shadow Snake Hand. I saw him whispering a few words to my doppelganger and using that hideous tongue of his on it's face. Then, just as he wanted to plunge a kunai into its hart, it grinned and exploded with the force of what must have been seven regular explosive notes. I didn't see any trace of Orochimaru afterwards, but a few of his singed clothing pieces. I doubt it really hurt him though."  
"Except for his ego perhaps", the old Kage laughed from behind his pipe. "Do you know who your mysterious rescuer is?"  
Anko opened up her trench coat and revealed a little sticky note.  
"Took me half an hour to decipher his writing. Says '_Sorry to butt in. U.N., Cl.12_ '", she looked away. Her annoyance was clear.  
"Uzumaki Naruto?"  
"Clone 12, I reckon."

The old man couldn't stop smiling. Which greatly added to Anko's stated of aggravation.

---

"Ultra Zankuha!" the Sound genin screamed. The massive shockwave only got a few yards before it collided with the raging inferno it was mend to stop. The confrontation of the two blinded the Sound team from seeing anything beyond the 5 meter point. Needless to say they didn't see the wave of kunai coming through the curtain of flames in time to react properly. Dosu was the luckiest as he used the metal device on his arm to deflect the oncoming projectiles. Kin dodged as good as she could, but still got cut in her leg while another blade pierced her left shoulder. Zaku's constant airstream had diverted the kunai that were heading his way, but it hadn't stopped a purple glowing Sasuke from coming up behind him and grabbing a hold of both of his arms.

"You seem to be proud of your arms", he grinned as he placed his foot on Zaku's spine. "Perhaps I should strip you from that pride", he whispered to his captive. Then in one fluent move he started stretching his leg until two distinctive "plops" were heard.   
"Yamete Uchiha-sama! Dosu, make him stop!" Kin screamed from the top of her lungs, while still struggling to get the kunai out of her shoulder.  
Dosu seemed to hesitate for a second before reaching into his jacket.  
"Uchiha-dono. Please forgive us. Take this scroll as a sign of our defeat and allow us to leave with our injured comrade."  
It were pretty words and a nice gesture, but they didn't quench the fire that was still burning in Sasuke's eyes. The fact that Naruto suddenly dropped down from the trees and grabbed the scroll out of Dosu's hand probably didn't help much either.

"We accept your generous offer and suggest you get the fuck out of here before someone changes his mind and decides to burn of whatever may remain of your face underneath those bandages."  
"Back off Naruto, this is my fight!"  
"Yeah I saw. The entire 5 seconds until they surrendered. Now let's just let them go alright?"  
Sasuke frowned in thought without losing any grip on his victim. For a few seconds he thought of his next action. "Hmpf. So, you two want your teammate back uh?"  
The two Sound genin silently nodded.  
"Okay," he said as he lifted Zaku from the ground by leaning backwards, his foot still on the poor genin's back. The Sound nin screamed once more at the sudden difference in pressure that was exerted on his dislocated limbs. "Fetch", he simply said as he catapulted Zaku away at a devastating speed, arching high between the trees. Dosu wasted no time and immediately went after the flying form of his teammate while Kin came limping after him.

Sasuke grinned. In a most uncharacteristic way. The dark purple energy was still lingering around his form and half of his body was covered by the active curse seal. He continued staring at the fleeing forms of his defeated enemies until he noticed something whizzing through the air, coming straight at him at high speed. Just as is was about to hit the side of his face he caught it barehanded.  
It was the Earth scroll.  
"Are you okay? You look ... different", the blond questioned his teammate with a frown.  
Sasuke slowly turned his gaze on Naruto, locking eyes firmly before speaking.  
"I feel ... fantastic", he finally grinned, revealing his his right fang.  
Naruto raised a questioning eyebrow, this wasn't what he had expected from the seal. Anko had never said anything about this.  
"Naruto. Fight me."  
"What? Now? You're kidding right? Sakura's injured and we finally got two scrolls. Besides, this is the chuunin exam. I don't want to pass a promotion just to have some fun here."  
"... Fine", he answered after taking this into consideration. After finally uttering the response he seemed to have calmed himself enough for the curse seal to retract.

"Lee! What are doing here? Did you forget who your teammates were?" It was Tenten who cried out for him as she came through the bushes. Following a few paces behind her was the Hyuuga.  
"Uh? Tenten! Neji! Sorry for my delay. Sakura-chan and her team seemed to be having some trouble wit-"  
"Like I said, your assistance was unnecessary."  
"And I wasn't even there", Naruto spoke up in his defense.  
"The way it sounds you have wasted our time on these rookies here Lee. Let us leave before they ask you to babysit them" the Hyuuga spoke in his stoic yet mocking manner before turning his back to the assembled nin.

That night the darkness felt like a warm blanket that covered the sleeping villagers. Down in the valley, near the lower river, the moonlight shone brightly over his gray spiky hair. Billions and billions of stars were filling up the night sky. It was the kind of night lovers dream about, but alas, he had no one to share this night with. So he just prodded the small campfire he made and pondered over the latest jutsu he acquired. Suddenly a twig snapped in the vicinity and he was immediately back on guard. Some movements in the bushes later the form of a young woman appeared.  
"Looks like you can use some company", she smiled. She had brought some rice balls from her father's restaurant. They talked for hours, she mostly about the business and the antics of certain mutually known guests, while he tried to remain quiet about the merciless way of his profession. Then very unexpectedly she flapped out that she really liked him and asked if she could kiss him. She didn't give him the time to answer however as her fingers went for hi-

"Kakashi-san. The Hokage request your presence at his office."  
'God. Damn. I was just getting to the good stuff', he thought disappointedly.  
"I'll be right there," he said in his lazy tone.  
"It concerns your students," the messenger added when he noticed the jounin's lack of enthusiasm.

A little later, but not much, in the Hokage Tower.  
"You asked to see me Hokage-sama?"  
"I'm afraid so Kakashi. I have news of one of your students."  
"What happened."  
"It seems that Uchiha Sasuke has been afflicted with one of Orochimaru's Heaven curse seals. We believe the rest of your team is unharmed however."  
"Orochimaru! What was he doing in the Leaf?"  
"Other then recruiting one of your subordinates we simply don't know his motives. We have reason to suspect howeve-"  
"Hokage-sama! I have news of Uchiha Sasuke's condition!" an Anbu who was coming through the window yelled.  
"Detarame? It is not your habit to be ... this loud."  
"Well, that's probably cause I'm not Detarame", the masked man spoke. His hand moved to the rat shaped mask and opened the clasp holding it shut.  
"Naruto!" Both the old man and the young pervert yelled in frustration.  
"Close as I can get to it anyway", the blond grinned as he threw off the brown cloak.  
"Didn't Anko tell you its not allowed to le-", the old man sighed and changed his mind. "What's the situation over there Naruto?"  
"Sasuke has just regained consciousness and brutally defeated the Sound team on his own. Currently there's a dark purple chakra glowing around his body and he looks really pissed."  
"Don't add anything to that Naruto, his mind is probably very unstable now. If you fight him at this state, there's a chance he might not recognize you as his friend, but just as another enemy", the jounin warned him.  
For a second the bunshin looked as if it was gonna shoot his mouth, but in the end just settled for a murmured "Whatever."  
"I presume you didn't come here just to keep us posted."  
"Well, actually, I did. But now I'm here anyway, I'd like to know some more about that curse seal."  
"Hmmm, let's see. We don't know everything about the curse seals of Orochimaru, but what we do know is that when activated, the curse seal increase their user's strength and chakra five-fold. You can see when it's active as the seal spreads all over the body of the afflicted person."  
"That doesn't all sound so horrible. So why do you call it a 'curse' seal?"  
"You see Naruto, every time Sasuke will use his seal, he'll become more and more susceptible to Orochimaru. If he'd ever start heavily relying on it, he might even become a mindless slave to Orochimaru's will."  
"Orochimaru this, Orochimaru that, who the hell is that guy anyway!" the now frustrated clone demanded to know.  
"You shouldn't worry about him now Naruto. You have a Chuunin Exam to pass."  
"I'm just worried that if that guy really is as powerful as Anko says he is, we might have pissed him of enough to come back and try to peel of our skin or something."  
"I'm afraid that no matter what you heard Naruto, Anko was not over exaggerating. Orochimaru is an S-class missing-nin and an extremely dangerous individual. And taking Anko's report into consideration, then yes I think it would be best if you steered clear from him in the future."  
The clone seemed to ponder on this for a moment before letting it go and focusing back on track. "So, what will happen to Sasuke now?"  
"We'll put an Evil Seal Suppressor on him, which will keep the seal from taking over Sasuke's body, however, a lot will depend on Sasuke himself. Now, Naruto, if you don't mind, I want to talk to you sensei in private."  
"Hai Hokage-oji-sama", he bowed and left through the same window he entered from.

"Doesn't he have to disappear to relay the information back to Naruto himself?" a voice came from behind the masked jounin. Kakashi was fast to turn around and look at the source of the sound.  
"Jiraiya-sama!"  
"Hi Kakashi", he casually greeted but then looked straight back at his former teacher, desiring an answer.  
"I told you he makes his clones different. I suspect he has some sort of telepathic bond with them."  
The long haired senin gave a small approving "hmpf" before turning back to Kakashi. "This wasn't exactly the briefing we had in mind, but now that you're up to date anyway, I'll hereby instruct you on the suppression seal Sarutobi mentioned to your student."

"Jeesh Sakura, I keep telling you they're not poisonous. I ate the same ones last night and I'm still here, aren't I?"  
"I don't care, I'm not eating anything you picked up from the ground in a place they call the Forest of Death."  
"Then at least eat some pigeon. Your body won't heal if you don't get your strength up."  
"Actually Naruto, the Nameko mushroom can be quite lethal, if prepared right," a friendly voice suddenly sounded behind them, "however I see you have no complete alchemical lab with you, so chances of that occurring would be dim."  
"Kabuto-sempai! What are you doing here?" the pink haired girl jumped up in surprise.  
"I got separated from my team fighting some Rain nin. I just found you guys by dumb luck", the silver haired medic-nin smiled. "Lucky for you as well I see, allow me to have a look at your injury Sakura-chan."  
"Oh, you're a medic Kabuto-sempai?"  
"Well, let's just say I know a few basic healing jutsus,"he modestly answered while removing the bandage. "Run afoul with a senbon user eh? You're fortunate it's only a piercing wound, those are the easiest to heal. That's because the amount of tissue that's actually damaged is minimal. ... See, all healed up already."  
"Wow, you're amazing Kabuto-sempai."  
"It's nothing really. We Leaf nins have to look out for each other, right?"  
"Right"  
"Woit", a blond with a face full of pigeon agreed.

Not much later Sasuke arrived back at the scene, finding his teammates in idle chitchat with a fellow Leaf genin. The presence of this third person would have been impossible to miss to anyone, yet the last heir to the Uchiha name pretended like he hadn't noticed him anyway. Even after Kabuto interrupted his conversation with Sakura on the inner working of the human body and cell regeneration properties to greet the raven haired boy he only got a slight nod in affirmation of his existence. This pause however allowed the glassed young man to see Naruto playing with the remains his food.  
"Did you know birds have hollow bones to make them light enough to fly, Naruto?"  
"Uh? No, really?" the genin in question suddenly looked up. In his curiosity he immediately looked down again to inspect the bone he had just broken between his fingers. "Hey, you're actually right. How did you know that?"  
"Naruto, you baka. That's basic academy stuff. Remember Iruka told us when we learned henge? That's the reason ninja's can't just transform into a bird and fly", Sakura scoffed at him.

Naruto on the other hand now experienced a number of different, mostly unpleasant, flashbacks. Transforming into a bird was something that had been on his mind for quite a while already. He had been experimenting with it again up to a month ago, ever since he had gained his higher proficiency with the Kage Bunshin and Henge techniques. His experiments had had many a bunshin expired prematurely and given Naruto a decent knowledge of close encounters of the floor kind, but had never ended in success. This new information could shed a different light on that situation.  
Now wasn't the time to experiment however. That would have to wait ... at least until nightfall when the others where asleep. For now, he would just continue snapping the bones, looking like an idiot as he inspected every little piece to check for hollow spaces.

He looked from his little inspections when Sasuke stuck a stick with a fish on it in the ground near the fire. Apparently he didn't want to take the extra risk of trying out Naruto's newly found cooking talent. "Hey Uchiha, why don't you make a trail of breadcrumbs leading to us right away? The smell of that thing will alert every team in a half mile radius downwind of our position."

Silently his feet hit the ground of the complex' inner courtyard. He had witnessed this scenery many times before, yet this time was different. No longer would he be a simple observer, this time, he would go further; delve deeper into the dark secrets of the near dead clan. Though he knew there would be no one wondering the premises, he moved forward with the greatest stealth and care, weary of any possible traps that could end his already brief existence even sooner. The soft tapping of the rubber soles of his sandals sounded ear deafening to him.  
When he finally reached the sliding doors his dim, shadowy hart felt like it would beat straight through his chest. Not out of fear, but excitement. He knew they were crossing a line at this point. Not only was breaking and entering in a fellow shinobi's house a felony, most of the time it also was an incredibly stupid and dangerous task as well. But he was a ninja and this the mission given to him by his creator. After spending some time picking the lock, he carefully slid open the door. He halted the movement of his arm as soon as his eyes detected the sunlight reflecting on a steel wire. Following the thin cable, he saw it leading to a out of place, closed cabinet. No doubt his rival had filled it with some nasty surprises. He looked further into the room, but failed to notice any more surprises. Still he didn't trust this simple setup, it wasn't like Sasuke to set up such an uncomplicated trick. Throwing his eyes to the ceiling and subjecting it to inspection he nodded approvingly. Moments later his world was turned upside down and the clone himself was carefully wedging himself through the narrow opening.

After navigating through the mansion for some minutes he started to learn his way around. Half an hour of searching later he still hadn't found anything that remotely looked like his target: the collection of techniques and jutsus the Uchiha clan must have acquired throughout the years. Yet he knew it had to be there. One did not become one of the ruling factions of Konoha for over a hundred years without some intensive clan only training program or something to back it up with. And Naruto neither believed that Sasuke, no matter what kind of genius he was supposed to be, developed chuunin techniques like the Grand Fireball, Mythical Fire Flower of Dragons Flame by himself. Not without his Sharingan anyway.

For a second it had already crossed his mind that the Uchiha clan had no need for an extensive jutsu library. With the ability to copy almost any jutsu in the bat of an eye and remember it indefinitely, who would throw himself over stacks of scrolls for hours on end to learn new techniques? Then he remembered the that not every Uchiha developed the Sharingan and even all those who did, didn't all do it at an early age. So that left him with the one conclusion that there simply had to be some good stuff stashed away in here somewhere.

He just had to find out where.

'Let's see, if I was an Uchiha, where would I hide all my secret goodies? Put myself in his mindset ...  
_I'm a superior ninja. My clan is the most feared one in all of Konoha. I can steal every jutsu of yours that you throw at me, know what you're going to do before you actually do it and see through any genjutsu. On top of that I'm a cocky bastard and think you're all dumb shit. You wanna steal all our jutsus? Oooh, I'm so scared right now, here's the key, come right in, I'm going to do some training in the forest, close the door on your way out._'  
'... That's it! Genjutsu. There must be a permanent illusion placed around here somewhere.'

It wasn't long really afterwards that the bunshin ended up staring at a majestic zen garden in one of the living quarters. What intrigued him the most was the very well kept miniature flower garden on one of the central rocks. Naruto didn't know a lot about flowers, other then that they needed water and good soil or something like that, but the one thing he did know was that Sasuke definitely didn't strike him like a flower-type person.  
So, this might be it, the entrance to the cave of knowledge. He took a step closer to the pool of raked pebbles and reached down inside. They small rocks felt real enough. He grabbed some and uprighted himself. Selectively he tossed some back into the garden. Nothing special seemed to happen. He quickly looked behind his back and then faced the pool again. He closed his eyes and then carefully as not to hit anything he started tossing the stones behind his back. Yet no matter how hard he focused on telling himself they weren't real, each time he heard the distinctive thud when a pebble hit the ground behind him. This was most unpleasant, this out of place meditation garden certainly wasn't bringing any relaxation to his mind. He tossed the last remaining rock up and down his hand. There was one more thing he could try. With a wide arc he threw the small stone across the room, as it was flying the clone started doing handseals.  
"Kawarimi no jutsu."

He closed his eyes right before a puff of smoke surrounded him. He took a deep breath before opening them, but when he did he smiled. It might look real, feel real and sound real, but one thing has for sure. Ninjutsu that depended on matter did not work on this illusion. So that was settled, this was definitely the place. Now they just needed to find a way to get past it.

"I swear that's the fifth time we passed that tree Naruto. Do you actually have any idea on where we are? You probably got us lost again." Sakura complained.  
"Would you finally shut the hell up Haruno, just cause I'm walking up front doesn't mean the three of you have to just follow mindlessly. Besides, the tower should be right around that tree line over there."  
"That's what you said the last three times."  
"Yes I did, didn't I ?" he gloated.  
"You baka. You say that like it's a good thing."  
"It kept you quiet until we reached the tree line, didn't it?"  
"Dammit Naruto you stupid blon-"  
"Ah, here we are. Three days ahead of the deadline. ... So Kabuto, you're just going to wait until your team arrives?"  
"Guess I have little choice in the matter. But I'm confident they'll show up soon."  
"Well then, see you inside Kabuto-sempai."  
"Bye bye Sakura-chan. Naruto, Sasuke." He greeted the two boys with a small nod.

---

"... if you lack strength run in the fields. If you lack wisdom, seek enlightenment."  
"If you're weak, train. If you're an idiot, learn. I don't think myself as either, so let's just open those scrolls now, shall we?"  
"But instructor Anko said not t-" Sakura objected.  
"No to open them until we reached the tower. We're there now." Naruto stated, grabbed his own Heaven scroll and opened it. Sasuke did the same with his Earth scroll.  
Just as they started to get some comprehension of what they were reading smoke erupted from both scrolls. Quickly they both threw their scrolls away and braced themselves for whatever was coming.

"Iruka-sensei!"  
"Hi Naruto. Sakura-chan. Sasuke." the previous mentor of the members of Team 7 greeted.  
"I see you made it past the second test. Pretty good time as well."  
"We had some ... added difficulty to the test. I'll tell you later Iruka-sensei."  
"I'm sure you will Naruto. Well, the test doesn't end for another three days. So let me show you to your quarters where you'll be staying until everything is over."

On the way to their chambers they passed a few common rooms where Hinata, Kiba and Shino were hanging around with Lee and Tenten. Upon recognizing them the golden haired boy immediately wanted to stop and say hi, but Iruka had expected that and told him to come along and see his room first. The chuunin didn't have much time he said, he had a lot of tests to correct and lessons to prepare. On top of that, he had to participate in supervising the rest of the exam. Halfway during his explanation Naruto had already replaced himself with a clone and was heading towards Hinata.

"Ohayo Hinata-chan! Guys. Tenten."  
"Hi Naruto-kun."  
"Yo Naruto, where's the rest of your team? .. They're not .. dead, are they?"  
"Nha, Iruka is showing them and a clone of me to our rooms. They'll probably show up in a minute or so."  
"How did your test go, Naruto-kun?"  
"... It was .. We ran into some unforeseen obstacles. I'll tell you later. Everything else was pretty kick ass though. How did you guys do?"  
"Well we got our second scroll pretty fast. After that we just headed straight for this tower. We've been here from day one. Only a few hours after ..." the white eyed Hyuuga heiress suddenly just fell silent.  
"What is it Hinata?"  
"Gaara", Kiba answered in her place. "We happened upon his team and a Rain team fighting. It was ... brutal. He, he just slaughtered them all. The guy's a monster. It was just like you said Naruto, only worse. More .. terrifying", he spoke in a silent voice. For Naruto seeing Kiba act this way was most unsettling, still he had to know more.  
"What does he do for attacks?"  
"He uses the sand inside his gourd. He can control it's movement and wrap it around his opponents. Then he; he closes his hand in a fist and... And everything just ..."  
"He crushes his opponents bodies. Using so much pressure they implode. The remains of their bodies just flying in bits and pieces through the air." Shino finished. He stated it without any emotion. No matter how impressive his description sounded, it didn't seem to do one thing to the prince of the hive.

"Naruto-kun. How goes your t-"  
"Hiya Lee! Great to see you!" Naruto shouted out to the Azure Beast. "Hey, come here for a seconds would you? There's something I just really need to know."  
"If you wish."

"Listen Lee," Naruto started as they moved from the group, "I'd really like this training to be kept just among us. It's hard enough to beat an Uchiha without him knowing just how you're gonna do it."  
"I understand Naruto. There are things I have been keeping from my rival as well. I hope I will be able to show him my true accomplishments before the end of this Exam. Now was there something you wanted to ask me, Naruto?"  
"Not really actually. I just wanted to talk to you in private. ... Wait, maybe there is something. The Hyuuga in your team, you called him Neji, right? You wouldn't know if he happens to be Hinata's cousin?"  
"Actually he is. I think it would be unwise to mention it though. There is a lot of bad blood between the two houses right now and Neji doesn't seem to be unaffected by the internal struggle of the Hyuuga. I believe that Hinata, being the heiress to the main house, now stands for everything he wants to oppose."  
"Ah it's like that. I was wondering why Hinata didn't want to talk about it."  
"Now tell me Naruto-kun; how far have you progressed with Gai-sensei's training?"  
"I just need two more bars and I'll be at your previous level", the blond smiled. "How about you?"  
Lee's face dropped in a look of shame and disappointment "I still have a long way to go before reaching Gai-sensei's level."  
"Oh come on Lee, Gai's like over twice your age. You can't expect to get as good as him overnight."

"Naruto!" a hellish voice resounded throughout the hallways. "How dare you leave us alone to listen to Iruka-sensei's rambling!"  
The orange clad boy just rolled his eyes as he heard his furious teammate approaching, making sure that she saw it too.

"This will hurt quite a lot", the jounin spoke to his raven haired subordinate as he put his hand of on the center of the complicated set of seals he had just finished to to suppress the dreaded Curse Seal of Orochimaru.  
The next moment the dark chamber of the tower was filled with the screams of Uchiha Sasuke's voice. The seals on the floor suddenly seemed to take on a life of its own as it flowed towards the original, making the circle of commas light up in retaliation. It was all over in a matter of seconds but to the young boy on the floor it seemed to last for hours. When the pain suddenly subsided his mind couldn't hold it anymore and glided into unconsciousness.

"Ku ku ku Kakashi-kun. You didn't know how to use seals last time we met."  
"Orochimaru!"  
"You know it doesn't matter how many seals you put on mine. The Heaven seal is linked directly to his will and his will for power is strong. Strong enough, to overcome."  
"Then his will should be strong enough to resist your influence as well."  
"Ku ku ku Kakashi-kun. I will leave you with this question: Whose will is strong enough to resist itself?"

As the words echoed through the halls, the pale face of the snake master retreated back into darkness, along with the rest of his slim form. The gray haired Leaf captain looked defeated. The shame of being unable to pose a threat to this opponent together with the fear of losing his student to him was to great for him to just let it idly slide by, like he did with most emotions.

Authors notes:

To everybody: I'm really sorry it took me so long to update and leave you with such a crappy ending. Really.  
Real life (aka having a job and responsibilities) sucks. I'm really stressed for time, all the time.  
This story is still constantly on my mind, so no worries that I'll abandon it before I've written what I had set out to write.  
Thanks to all my reviewers, especially the people who came with so many ideas of their own, and I want to apologize to you guys right now for having forgotten your names and being to lazy and in a hurry to look them up, I just really want to get this chapter on line fast before something happens to stop that again.

Message to everybody who finds out spelling or grammatical errors: PM me or mail me a corrected version of this chapter. It's so embarrassing to get corrections like that in the review sections and I'm too ashamed of the long ago update to bother the people who proposed to beta for me.

Laterz guys.

K


	11. Chapter 11

"So, you're the boy's sensei, huh? Tell me something about him," the old frog hermit asked Kakashi with a smile after he had explained the workings of the sealing jutsu to him.  
"Sasuke? He's best described as-"  
"No, the other one, the one we just saw. Naruto."  
"Naruto? He's ... loud, but energetic and devoted. He usually rushes into things, often into more then he can handle, but even when he finally figures that out he'll be too stubborn to admit defeat. Recently he's been showing some progress on that, among other things."  
"What exactly do you mean?"  
"Both his chakra control and his capacity have improved drastically in the last few months, with them, his ability to hide his chakra and of course employ his techniques. Which would not have been so spectacular if his favorite technique wasn't Kage Bunshin and he didn't have the most powerful demon known to shinobi sealed inside him, disrupting his natural chakra flow."

"Hmm, fascinating. You must have been putting him under one hell of a training program to unlock those abilities in him, Kakashi."  
"Actually, Jiraya-sama, I had nothing to do with that."  
"He did all that by himself?!" the long gray haired ninja sweat dropped.  
"I think he did even more, but there's only so much he's willing to show me. I suspect it has something to do with Sasuke."  
"His teammate?"  
"The two have been rivals ever since I met them. I used to figure it was about Sakura, but it has grown beyond that point now."  
"He sure knows how to pick 'em out then, that's for sure. So Kakashi, have you never tried to sneak a peak at this 'miracle training' he's been doing?"  
"On several occasions, yet all I've seen him do is running across the village wall using chakra to stick, doing some sparring with Hyuuga Hinata or some basic chakra control jutsus. Strange thing is, he's not showing any progress in tai jutsu."  
"Hmm, fighting Hyuuga and Uchiha with such a low level in tai jutsu is very odd indeed. What style does he use?"  
"He doesn't use any style. Naruto, is more of a streetfighter then anything else. His attacks mostly brute and based on power, he lacks finesse and could use a better defence."  
"You haven't encouraged him to pick up a school yet?"  
"Like I said, until recently his personality seemed too, loud and hyper for any style I know of. I'd send him to Maito Gai, but I don't really want to do that to him."

Evening was falling when Naruto wandered through the corridors of the tower in the middle of the forest of death. He was walking around in a fresh black t-shirt and orange pants, his jackets slung over his shoulders, together with the towel he had just used.  
A few hours ago he had met with Lee in one of the rec rooms and under loud enthusiasm of the young tai jutsu expert Naruto had added the last two weights to his bands and joined Lee's training session. The blond had figured that over the past three months he had somewhat come to understand what real training was. Apparently he was mistaken.  
Lee's pure physical condition was nothing but top notch and still quite a bit beyond Naruto's level. Then again, he figured, the guy had a year of training under a pure tai jutsu master on him. But the streak faced genin held his own. That is to say, in doing push ups, kicking and punching the budojin and training his abdomen and leg muscles. Sparring and usage of techniques was out of the question, they agreed upon this, _no matter how hot the passion to test each others skill against the other burned in their youthful hearts_!  
That didn't stop Lee from competing though.

Now the blond was emerging from the showers and on his way to find a quiet spot, without any prying eyes to try and bring new knowledge to practice on an old technique when his eyes came across her frail form. She was standing in front of a window, the magical hour of twilight outside coloured the sky red, giving her hair a somewhat purple glow to it. Her beige fur lined jacket traded in for something lighter, a white silk shirt, knobbed together with small wooden cylinders, but still open enough to reveal a black t-shirt underneath.  
"Hinata-chan!"  
"Hi Naruto-kun," she said before turning around with a smile. She had already seen him coming before he had rounded the corner. He knew, and he grinned.  
"What you doing?" he asked.  
"I was trying to train my Byakugan by searching for team 10."  
"Any luck?"  
She shook her head. "There's a lot of forest out there Naruto-kun."  
"I know, I know. I wouldn't worry about them anyway Hinata-chan. Shikamaru would probably find it too troublesome to get his ass kicked, plus they've got some good teamwork on their part, they'll be fine. Probably turn up soon enough to get at least one last night of sleep in a decent bed", he reassured her.  
"You're probably right. So, what was it that kept you up?"  
"Huh? Oh yeah. No, I'm sorry, but I don't think I 'm supposed to tell you, yet anyway. But the Hokage said he left, so you shouldn't worry about it."  
"Y-You spoke to the Hokage? Was he here?" she squeaked out, thinking that if the Hokage had discussed it with Naruto himself it must have been something serious.  
"Oh no, I sent a clone to his office two days ago", he waved away her worries.  
"Oh ..."

And so the two teens stood there, gazing at the last rays of sun, fighting a losing battle with the darkness. Few moments later only moonlight reflected in their eyes.

_'This is really nice. Just me, Naruto and the stars. Maybe I shou- no, I shouldn't. Not now. Maybe after the exam. He's been looking so forward to this for months . He must really want to make chuunin. If I say it now he might become too distracted. After the exam. Definitely.'  
_A moment later the automatic lighting of the tower booted up with the accompanied electronic buzzing of light bulbs.  
"Hinata-chan?" he asked her softly.  
"Y-Yes Naruto-kun?"  
"I met your cousin in the forest."  
"Did ... did you fight him?"  
"Oh, no. But he's about as friendly as a kunai heading straight for your face."  
The blue haired heiress let her lavender white eyes drop in sadness,"He .. he wasn't always that cold, you know".  
"I know, you told me once before", he answered, regret of his previous statement could be heard in his voice. For a moment silence reigned again between the two.  
"Hey you know what Hinata? I never looked at it like this, but he would be the perfect training exercise for you!"  
"Huh? What do you mean Naruto-kun?"  
"Simple really. I mean, you're the heiress of the clan, so when you become you're gonna be dealing and negotiating with all sorts of people who don't really like you at first. So getting back in touch with Neji could be a good practice in dealing with people. And ... I really think you could really use a friend in the clan, some one you can trust. Especially one in the branch house, if you think about it. And from what I hear about him, he would be perfect.  
Besides, it wouldn't really be wise to have a designated protector who doesn't really like you, would it ?" the boy winked a foxy grin to her.

He never ceased to amaze her, one moment he could be so jolly and carefree and the next one he would surprise her with a real calculated comment, which he always seemed to make up on the spot.  
That didn't mean she was always happy with it though. This one, was The perfect example of that. Hinata, despite her grown confidence, still preferred to stay away from her cousin. Neji was just so ... devoid of life. She hadn't seen him smile in the last 5 years. Then again, practically no one in the clan made a habit out of that.

"You're right but ... I-", she stopped, she knew he was right. It was something that should be done. For the best of the clan, herself and her cousin. And if she didn't he would probably keep encouraging her to. "What do you suggest I do then, Naruto-kun?"  
"Erhm ... I don't know", he said scratching the back of his head," he's your cousin. Erhmm... What does he like?"  
"I don't know if Neji-ni-san likes anything anymore. All I ever see him do is train."  
"Well then, try to train together with him. And try not to beat his ass too badly", he winked.  
++

Few minutes after his short rendez-vous with Hinata Naruto had found a quiet place that seemed safe from prying eyes and had access to an open window.  
That last part was pretty important for his purpose right now. To produce a Kage Bunshin that was capable of flight he would need to give the clone at least the form of a bird. However, Kage Bunshin no jutsu was a technique that in essence just created a molecular clone of the user, stitched together from shadows and chakra.  
That meant that even thought the body wasn't a real one, it was only capable of that which the original could do. Which didn't include shape changing into a bird, complete with the hollow bones needed to lessen the weight to allow flight.  
To accomplish that he would have to perform both the Henge and Kage Bunshin techniques simultaneously. Or to be more precise, start summoning the shadows, tell them which form to take and only them bring them forth to this world. This was going to be tricky.

Tricky, just like it had been getting to the Uchiha jutsu collection. His clone had spent hours in front of that damn zen garden, inspecting every little detail. Jumping to the central stone which held the flowers that had caught his attention in the first place had proved to be utterly useless as well as near deadly. It had required some real areal acrobatic maneuvers to get away from the numerous kunai that had suddenly shot out from hidden slots in the ceilings and walls.  
Trying to dispell the jutsu was like trying to move the clouds by blowing really hard in their general direction. In the end the solution had been presented by the nature of the universe itself.  
The long cranial activity had drained the clone out of most of his chakra; Feeling empty and void, not unlike its maker on an empty stomach, it looked around the room in search for any form of energy. The mind had been looking for power bars, soldier pills or even a cup of instant ramen, while the body had unconsciously stopped at a panel in the paper wall.  
A few moments later the bunshin put two and two together and realized what strange compelling it had for a seemingly blank wall. The bunshin, based out of chakra had unconsciously been searching for a source of chakra which he could possibly tap off. Sensing for chakra had never been one of their strong points, but it's currently low levels of life force might have eased the attempt.

So, to jot it down; In a room with a remarkably strong genjutsu in it he had found a source of chakra emanating from a blank wall. Conclusion; A sealing tag had to be hidden underneath.

Once he had located the seal and deactivated it with some of his remaining chakra the secret entrance had revealed itself immediately.  
Descending into the dark depths, his nerves and feet on edge for any last possible traps and supporting himself to keep himself from falling due to chakra depletion. When his eyes had finally adjusted to the lack of light he grinned and pulled out the nearest scroll from the rack he had just bumped up against. Blue orbs darted up and down, scanning the contents of the paper. When he had seen enough, he wrapped it back neatly and placed it back the way he found it. With a smile he let himself fall down peacefully. He had turned into smoke before his head had touched the ground.

That was two days ago now.  
It hadn't taken Naruto long before he had sent out two complete 5 man teams of clones to town. The first had been busy in Uchiha manor, cleaning up after the first scout and later started reading scrolls like mad.  
Meanwhile the second group had arrived at the apartment of our ambitious secret student. All of them were in telepathic contact with their partner in the other team and what team A read, team B wrote down.

Yet despite the amount of written knowledge they were going through, few new techniques were currently being discovered by Naruto. Most of the scrolls handled about fire jutsus, new uses for old techniques, tactics or the basics of the Akame Akaze style and use of the Sharingan.

His suspicions about the style where now being confirmed. It was an offensive style, designed to be the pinnacle of adaptability. Only with the Sharingan would one be able to get the most out of it. Making it possible to instantly incorporate newly acquired movements. Luckily it wasn't really necessary to use the style, but one could only truly master it with an active Uchiha bloodline.  
Naruto didn't really mind though. He hadn't been planning to stick to the style from the start. Though he liked the combos and the indirect approach the style offered, it lacked in raw power, depending too much on finesse to his liking.

Still, something bothered him. Like previously stated, despite the great amount of scrolls, the number of techniques was relatively small. Perhaps he had been right, figuring that the Uchiha's didn't actually rely on written sources of information. I mean, with a bloodline like theirs, who would bother writing everything they knew down. They would just show the technique once to their kids and have it secured for an entire generation. Maybe they didn't have that shipload of techniques they must have acquired through the centuries written down because they didn't know how the technique actually worked. They just knew how to use them.  
On the other hand, maybe they donated those acquired techniques to the Semi Public Shinobi Library of Konoha. Or ... they could have just hidden them in other places, scattered throughout the premises.  
So many possibilities, so little info to go on, and yet so many to process. He hated times like these, when new knowledge only brought more questions with them.

Somewhere in the Forest of Death, between the leaves that were casting dark shadows on the undergrowth a lone figure stood. Hands held patiently behind his back, a serene look on his face and eyes hidden by the reflection of light on his glasses. Then suddenly a smile creeps on his face as he senses his master approaching.  
"Orochimaru-sama."  
"Kabuto. I take it everything is going according to plan?"  
"Off course Orochimaru-sama," the mysterious medic smiled. "Unfortunately I haven't been able to witness Uchiha-san's reactions to your Seal of the Heavens in combat situations."  
"It doesn't matter. It seems that Kakashi has already made some adaptations. Not that those will matter in the end anyway." The snake lord chuckled, if not giggled.  
"There is one thing that bothers me Kabuto-kun."  
"What is it lord?"  
"The information you provided me about his teammate, the Kage Bunshin brat."  
"Uzumaki Naruto? What is it about him, sir?"  
"... " the pale ninja paused, thinking over the best words to how to describe the little runt then sinisterly squinted his eyes, "He's more ... annoying then you said."  
"I did think he'd be worse in that way when there's a lot of him around," the gray haired nin answered dryly, a glint of humor in his eyes.  
"Just see to it that Yoroi knows his job." The sage was clearly not amused.  
"I'll see to it your that your will be carried out Orochimaru-sama", Kabuto answered before vanishing, off to brief his 'teammates'.

Time might have seemed to pass more slowly for the genin who were cooped up in the central tower of the forest, but pass it did. The rookie nine had once more been reunited, Kabuto's team seemed to had made it as well, just like the Sound trio and a single team from the Grass Country. All of which were now assembled in the building's main hall, listening intently to the wise old Hokage's words, explaining the historical value of the Chuunin Exam and the dreaded forest.

When he went on about how the rest of the exam would cease to be a team event and it was now every potential chuunin for himself, there were some surprised faces among the genin when those who wanted to forfeit in advance stepped forward.

"Kabuto-sempai?"  
"It's okay Sakura-chan. I actually really enjoy being a genin."

"Actually being a chuunin would be more troublesome..."

"Shikamaru if you quit now I will take over your body and parade your naked as down the street for a week!" Ino hissed to her teammate. Both of them hadn't been kidding.

'_Odd for Kabuto to give up so easily. He didn't strike me as much of a lazy ass. And why would he gather so much information on all the participant if he'd just been planning to quit in the end anyway? After all, after seven consecutive exams he has to be familiar with the rules ..._' were the thoughts that went through more then just the blond's head.

"So, the rest of you will stay uh? Bold decisions, especially for all being such a young group. Well then, if you'll all just move up the stairs on the side we'll get the preliminaries started right now," the Hokage ushered them.

"Naruto, shouldn't you be standing with your own team?" a somewhat annoyed Kiba remarked to the blond when he noticed him standing between teams 10 and 8, effectively joining the two groups as one.

"Hmmm? Oh, no, well at least I don't think so. Figured if I was close to the people with the best senses in the room they might notice and share stuff that I miss out on." He finished with a smile and a wink.

After the quitters were escorted away and the remaining brave had taken their places on the balcony above all eyes were now set on the dull electronic announcement board against the wall. Slowly, but gaining in pace the names of all remaining genin flickered on and off the screen, until evey single combination of fights had been presented in the blink of an eye, then it showed some more, until it stopped at one of them.  
'Right off the bat, huh?', Uchiha Sasuke thought as he saw his name shining right on top.  
_'Kabuto's teammate? I wonder if this is his seventh year as well. Well, let's see if that has done him any good.'  
_Both combatants made their way slowly and dignified down the stairs. Sasuke kept his eyes front, completely ignoring his opponent just until they both stood face to face next to the referee. Yoroi on the other hand had been eying his younger fellow Leaf genin all the while underway.

**Uchiha Sasuke vs Yoroi**

The referee went over the rules one more time and then signaled for them to start.  
Neither of the combatants wasted any time and immediately jumped a few steps backwards end slung their own projectiles towards the other. The first moves didn't end there as Yoroi was already sliding under the clashing metal and closing the distance to Sasuke. The younger boy easily stepped under the oncoming fist and performed a low sweep of his own, effectively bringing Yoroi down.  
Before the Uchiha heir could jump back and perform another long range attack on the prone genin however he was already entangled by his opponents legs. The sudden loss of balance brought him falling right into the waiting clasps of his older opponent.  
_'Hmmpf, a simple grapple, he's not gonna acc-k!'_

Yoroi had meanwhile activated his own personal jutsu, making his hand glow a pale blue as he started sucking out Sasuke's chakra.  
The ravenhaired boy however wasn't planning on taking this and managed to plant an elbow in the other genin's face and scrambled out of his opponent's grasp.  
_'Was he just ... sucking out my chakra?!_'

"So, you figured that out already huh?" Yoroi noticed as Sasuke eyed his glowing hand. "With this little technique I can drain out your chakra and use it as my own", he grinned.  
The dark member of team 7 acted unimpressed over this statement. He just slung another pair of kunai at his opponent and jumped backwards to the rail of the upper balcony where he quickly performed a Fire Flower jutsu on the darting form of Yoroi.  
He caught the masked nin dead on, but when the fire and smoke cleared a bit he was disappointed to only see the burned remains of a floor tile.  
Then before he knew it Sasuke got dragged down by a grasping, glowing hand. Before the suddenly appeared Yoroi could bash his head on the ground below though he managed to kick himself free. This wasn't paired without the loss of a good chunk of chakra though. Back on ground level he was now tangling close range with his opponent. A few moments later he succeeded in sweeping the obscure faced ninja down and got his arm in a tight lock. He was about to break the arm that had already cost him so much of his chakra until he felt the same lifeforce disappearing from his body again. Quickly he disengaged and got a good distance from Yoroi again.

_'So, he can drain my chakra from any point of his and my body. Shit. He's clearly a grappler, so I should just forget about close combat with this ass. He seems to be pretty good at evading my long range attacks as well, plus he already managed to sap out a big deal of my chakra. Hmmpf. The only chance I have now is to hit him hard with one attack and possibly follow that up with a combo.'_

His eyes darted across the room, searching for inspiration and finally seemed to find something at the form of Rock Lee.  
He directed himself back to his approaching opponent and grinned. Right before Yoroi ended his swing, the target of his fist disappeared for a few fractions of a second, only to appear once again kicking him high in the air by a firm foot on his chin, mimicking the technique the youghtfull taijutsu master had used on him during their first encounter.

_'Uchiha Sasuke! For you to have copied my technique so flawlessly after only having seen it once. Truly you must be the genius they say you are. Naruto, you have chosen a worthy fighter as a rival'_

_'Fuck! Freakin' damnit, shit! When the hell did he get that fast? He NEVER moved that fast bef- , ... save that one time in the forest... But the seal doesn't look active now ...'_  
Just as that train of thought railed through the young blond's mind the tiny tendrils of black started spreading over the face of the young man, sailing through the air.  
_'Shit, but it's not supposed to work anymore,' _Sasuke crunched his teeth, his mind fixated on pushing back the seal while his body continued on the path he had decided to take already.  
It was improvisation, since he hadn't seen or experienced the rest of Lee's move, but he figured it would get the job done.

A diverting strike to the side of the head, followed by a kick to the kidney left the face of the masked nin wide open. Screaming "I'm not finished yet" a devastating kick to the stomach followed right as Yoroi fell back on solid ground.

_'Lion combo, aerial reborn_', Naruto almost mouthed before his rival screamed the name of his technique.

Sasuke slit a couple of feet back over the ground and after the referee announced him the clear winner he slowly walked back to the ground, scratching the back of neck, while Yoroi was carried out on a stretcher.  
Cheers of admiration were heard from two kunoichi in the audience as Sasuke passed them, but the raven haired boy uncaringly continued on towards his sensei.

"Good job Sasuke", Kakashi stated, putting his hand on his subordinates shoulder.  
_'The suppression seal seems to be holding. But he will need to work on his self restrained will it hold in more stressful situations.'_  
"Yeah, you were great Sasuke-kun! The way you totally pummeled that guy was amazing!" Ino admired him. She didn't get any reply, but she blamed that on the fact that the announcement board was flashing again.

"Nara Shikamaru vs Kin of the Sound."

scene break

Konoha, Hidden Leaf Village, high noon in the lower commercial district.  
That was the setting where Mitarashi Anko dwelled.  
Three days had passed since her encounter with her old master in the Forest of Death. And she was still pissed off about it. Well, there was that and the fact that the lunch rush at her favorite dango shop had come in early today.

In her annoyance she kicked a pebble over the street. As she followed its trajectory her eyes met on a lone food stall.  
She crunched her teeth at the thought of that annoying orange brat bothering her through that day. She definitely didn't feel like going in there. ... That was until her stomach grumbled in protest and she noticed the ramen bar was the only restaurant nearby that wasn't crowded over.

She muttered something to herself before grabbing one of the coupons from her jacket and ordered a bowl of shrimp noodles.  
" ... you're paying with a coupon?" the old man raised an eyebrow.  
"Something wrong with that old man?" Anko cocked her head a little.  
"There's only one person in the known universe that pays his ramen with coupons here lady, and you don't look like one of him", he squinted his eyes some more and menacingly tightened his grip on the giant spoon in his hand.  
"Uzumaki Naruto..." Anko grumbled under her breath.  
"The great Orange Swarm himself! Muahahaahahaha!" Ichira laughed loud heartedly.  
"Naruto must like you a lot for him to give you one of those."  
"Meh." the Anbu captain said nonchalantly, "the brat gives me too much credit for nothing really. You seem to know him well though."  
"Well, despite efforts he's still my best customer."  
Anko chewed down a chopstick full and trying to deny to herself how good it really tasted.  
"So how's he doing in the exam?"  
"Well ...he's still alive and in it, so I guess he's doing good enough. Second test will be over pretty soon, so if he's as good a customer as you say he is, he'll probably drop by later today."

scene break

Half of the finalists were now known; Uchiha Sasuke, Nara Shikamaru, Temari of the Desert, her brother Kankuro -the only genin in the preliminaries so far who had actually killed his opponent- and Dosu of the Sound, who had scored an easy victory on Chouji.

Once again the names of the remaining contenders flashed over the board.

**Aburame Shino vs Gaara of the Desert**

The second before the red head's name appeared a veritable sandstorm swept through the room. Moments later two individual twisters became clear, one around the Sand nin, the other in the middle of the lower arena. Then, in an instant Gaara's form disappeared from the higher balcony only to pop up again down below.  
Shino just stood there, hands casually in his pockets. The only visible emotion on his face a frown in his eyebrow, which now was mostly hidden behind his dark black glasses. For what seemed like an eternity he didn't move, speak or gave any affirmation of the knowledge that he was to be contending in the match up. Then, finally, he stated in his usual monotone voice:  
"I forfeit."

More frowns, whispers and sighs of relief were audible across the room. Kiba however gave his teammate an angry, yet disappointed eye, as if stating 'You're not even gonna try?!"  
Before anybody vocalized these thoughts however, Shino explained himself.

"My bugs dislike his chakra." He paused for a second and for once it almost seemed as if there was an emotion in his voice, one which they hoped never to hear from fim: concern. "Plus, he seems to be coated in a layer of sand, covering his real body. My fighting style is not suited for such an opponent under these conditions."

Gaara frowned and once again performed his displacement routine, reappearing once again in front of his grinning brother and triumphant looking sister. His eyes directly gazing at Sasuke's. They didn't unlock until the board showed the next pair of names.

Naruto felt somewhat disappointed, he had seriously hoped to see at least some action of the red head. This kid just felt too ... strange to be a regular genin. Or a regular ninja for that matter. Disputed, ninjas as a given always were some way or another a few points of on the wacky scale, but Gaara had something about him that was, felt ... familiar. Dangerously familiar ...  
That wasn't the only thing going through that little head of him right now however.

_'How did I know that name for Sasuke's technique? I've known most of that move for quite a while now, -not airborne though- but never any names. ... Argh whatever! Now I have to learn to do that initial kick too. Fuck ass bloodlimit. Hmpf, let's analyse. ... start of with fast movement of the left foot then follow it up with a ... -Damnit, wish my head didn't ache so bad right now- .'_

Naruto's internal mumblings were disturbed however by a rough hand tapping on his shoulder.  
"Hey dumbass, looks like we're up next."  
"Uhn. What? Oh yeah, prelims", Naruto muttered to himself throwing a quick glance at the board on the wall and turning back to what appeared now to be his eager opponent.  
"Sorry Kiba. I was ... never mind, let's get going then, shall we?" he grinned a feral smile and put his backpack down.  
"You're too cheerful for someone who's about to have his ass kicked, Naruto", the dog user taunted.  
"That's because I'm not, dog breat- oh, sorry Gai," he apologized for stepping on the jounin's foot.  
For once, the tai jutsu master's dramatic overacting didn't show up and he simply nodded, understanding Naruto's subtle way of saying he was carrying the full set of weights his most precious student once wore.  
"That's okay, Naruto. Now go and show us how the flaming spirit of youth lets you fights your battles!"  
"Erhm ... okay?" both genin answered after glancing at one another.

When both fighters finally arrived at the center of the arena and the referee gave them the signal to commence Kiba immediately whistled on his fingers. A moment later his faithful pup Akamaru appeared right at his side.  
"Oh come on Kiba, you can't be that scared of me that you already think you need help to beat me," Naruto complained while holding his hand to his pained head. He didn't understand this, he never had headaches.  
"I don't need anybodies help to kick your ass, but Akamaru here could use a good workout", the dog user boasted.  
"I hear a lot of barking, but I don't see any-"  
"Four Legs Technique!" Kiba screamed angrily right before charging straight at Naruto at blurring speed.  
Naruto was already grumbling to himself that he couldn't show his real speed to counter or intercept the oncoming Kiba. He decided he was just going to try and dodge it as bad as he could make it look like. That was until something, just about 40, 45 miles away decided it was okay to just go "poof".

Naruto himself however made entirely different sounds as he skidded across the stone floor of the little arena and finally came to a halt with a light thud.  
Kiba watched as his opponent didn't seem to get up and happily turned around. "He's down for the count ref, won't be getting up soon."  
Gekko Hayate gave an unimpressed raise of his eyebrow and motioned behind the genin.  
"Oooooh my freaking head", Kiba heard stammering from behind him as he turned to see a Naruto who was slowly getting up, cradling the painful appendage between his arms.  
"The hell?! I just hit you in the stomach!" Kiba quizzically protested.  
"I know ...", the blond genin retorted while slowly massaging his temples. _'What the fuck is going on? My head feels like it just exploded and why do I suddenly want to empty my kunai poach at him with two of the things going wide only to ricochet off of-... Shit. The clones!'_

scene break

"We're nearly done here", a young excited voice was heard in a small but busy little apartment in the shadier parts of Konoha.  
"Hey us too! So what are you gonna do after this?" someone with the exact same voice seemed to reply.  
"Well he says he wants to try out that thing on scroll 25, but I'm gonna clean out the fridge. That brown-greenish spot on the back of it has been bothering me for ages", the first clone said on his turn.  
"Yeah, the thing has probably got a life of it's own now."  
"Exactly. So how bout you?"  
"Well it's too bad I'm so low on chakra, cause I actually wanted to compare some of our own notes to the things I copied to scroll 47, but I think I'm just gonna-"  
_'**NO MORE DISSAPEARING AND NO EXTRA THINKING!** Look guys, I don't know why, but it's giving me a major headache when you do. I'm fighting Kiba right now, so when you're done just sit tight and meditate or something to save your chakra. I'll get back to you after I kick his ass.'_

"Ah well, there goes that plan."  
"… I'm still gonna kill that thing in the fridge though."

scene break

"I know ... you hit like a bitch", Naruto taunted.  
"Why you- Get him Akamaru!" the angered Kiba growled as he tossed a smoke bomb to the blonds location.  
Within seconds the area around Naruto was filled with a thick blue vapor. Not long after the fierce white pup entered the smoke sounds of struggle, yelps and muffled screams and curses were heard. It was over fairly quickly and seemed to have ended with a satisfied bark and the little dog proudly walking out of the smoke.

"Ah, that's a good boy Akamaru!" Kiba congratulated the pup, inviting it with open arms. "Pheh, that dobe went down even easier then I imagined."  
The little doggy suddenly accelerated its pace beyond what Kiba had ever seen of the pup, a cute but feral growling coming out from it. Before Kiba had even thought about dodging the whelp was now airborne and only a yard away from him.  
"Dobe?!" the dog user could only hear as the pup suddenly burst out in smoke and a pissed off blond head popped out of the fleeting white cloud. The next moment Kiba found himself flying across the room.

Naruto hadn't meant to hit his fellow nin so hard, but he wasn't taking that kind of crap, not from Kiba, not from anyone. He threw an angry look over his shoulder towards his teammates and faced his opponent again. He was happy to see Kiba slowly but steadily pick himself up again. Thank the gods he had adjusted his aim to the boy's forehead protector. Sure it hurt his hand a little and wasn't the most effective spot in a fight, but Naruto realized you just didn't go and break an Inuzuka's nose ... or their teeth for that matter.

"You ... Naruto ... What have you done with Akamaru?" Kiba demanded to know. The smoke screen was still there, limiting his vision, while his own bomb should have evaporated already.  
"He, let me phrase it like this. You better hope to be unconscious before the smoke evaporates so you'll never have to see it for yourself." Naruto answered in his most evil voice, a dark grin on his face.

That seemed to get the reaction Naruto had hoped for from the feral fighter as Kiba stormed forward, hellbent on inflicting great bodily harm to the blond.

"You bastard!" the Inuzuka roared as he shot forward to deliver a straight punch to Naruto's jaw. The blonde was now prepared for Kiba's possible speed and grabbed the oncoming arm and used Kiba's momentum to throw him against a nearby wall. Kiba didn't even flinch at the little setback, he simply regained his balance right on time to land on the wall on all fours. Kiba went for the higher grounds and right before jumping towards his intended victim he filled the arena with smoke once again.

For a minute or so Kiba was coming at Naruto like a monkey at peanut butter on a stick, making the blond seriously regret he still hadn't found a way to fight blinded. Then just a sudden the attacks stopped. Figuring what Kiba was up to he quickly tried to make his way out of the smoke.  
Then, as he saw Kiba untying the ropes that held his dog, he almost wanted to make his way back in the smoke. The unruly genin did seem mighty pissed off about the blond's most recent act of mischief.  
"You colored him orange?!" the brown haired boy yelled furious as he tried to get the dust off of his pup as best as possible. The statement went accompanied with some various cursing.   
"Well yeah, I know his name is AKA-maru, but I didn't have any red on me," he grinned at the little pun.  
You bastard Naruto! Akamaru, dynamic marking!" he yelled. The little dog immediately got up his feet, smiling at his owner before growling at Naruto and jumping high up.

'What the ... Oh man, gross! I wonder if this is karmic payback for that Rain ninja,' Naruto's mind wondered as he valiantly tried dodging as much of the dog urine that was being thrown around the room. In the end he had to settle with the fact that at least he hadn't gotten any on his face.

"Now I'll show you why his name is Akamaru", Kiba grinned as he threw his dog a soldier pill.  
The effects were immediately noticeable. The cute little pup grew a more fierce looking stature and it's features became distorted in a dark, feral way. There was more. Naruto noticed how the white spots of fur between all the orange dust came to color red.

"Man, that's one bad case of indigestion your dog's got there Kiba. I'm not sure giving him that stuff was such a good idea." our favorite genin mocked him.  
"He's supposed to look like that you moron! Let's do it Akamaru! Human Beast Clone no Jutsu!"

After witnessing the Inuzuka clan's version to the Bunshin technique Naruto's world became dark purple once again as Kiba's remaining smoke bombs flew through the room.  
Wasting no time, the blonde sprung into action. Quickly he discarded the piss stained vest he was wearing and grabbed a container from his pouch, which he held above his head and opened. Dousing himself with a generous amount of the contained powder. The next thing he heard was "Gatsuuga!!"

'_This better work,_' the blonde thought as he sprained his eyes for any oncoming dangers. And sure, there were two whirling tornados of teeth and claws heading his way. Just as he was about to start dodging he noticed them changing course. He smiled and took the risk, standing perfectly still. Smile changed to grin when the spirals passed him harmlessly.  
_'Just as I had hoped, he depends on his smell for his targeting. Now hopefully he can still see something in this smoke. Henge!'_ he thought while he was throwing several kunai in seemingly random directions, most of which hitting the balcony in front, or the walls behind the spectators.

"Akamaru!?" Kiba suddenly questioned as he saw yet another version of himself standing amidst the falling smoke.  
"Ha, that stupid trick won't work on us, Naruto. I can smell right through that disguise!" The genin's nostrils visibly flared as he took in the air around him. "… Paprika?! That was what you put on my dog? And yourself!" Kiba complained, then grinned, now having figured out why he couldn't effectively target Naruto in the smoke.  
" It doesn't matter Naruto. I can smell what's covered underneath those cheap kitchen supplies."

Right as Kiba was about to take in a fresh breath of air, a small explosion occurred underneath the smoke, which has below knee level now. Their was barely any fire accompanied with the sound, just a lot of … stuff flying through the air. Stuff that seemed to have a really bad effect on two of the Kiba's.

"More cheap kitchen supplies?" the third one now asked.  
Naruto now cancelled his disguise so that everyone could now see him there, vestless, with a rebreather in his mouth and orange streaks all through his blond hair. At least for a few seconds everybody could see him, as suddenly the various kunai that he had thrown throughout the room moments ago were suddenly spouting serious amounts of smoke, robbing everyone but the Hokage, team Gai, the referee and Kiba from their vision.

Not that it mattered a lot to Kiba and his pet, as these two were still hacking and sneezing to get all the various peppers and other spices from their noses.

It all happened real quick from there on. Naruto launched himself forward at top speed. Right before he reached the two he vanished from view and performed the exact same kick Lee and Sasuke had demonstrated before. The only difference was he did it twice in rapid succession, launching both Kiba's high up.

Naruto himself followed suit, together with what was going to be his first and only Kage Bunshin in this battle.

In perfect unison the two blondes pulled out their rolls of steel wires and swung these in opposite directions, successfully tying both Kiba's together. Together they pulled the wires downward, making their opponents come to a collision course with them. As the two duo's passed each other, the Naruto's accelerated the other's path downward with a solid kick in the stomach. They hit the ground with a loud thud. Only to be lifted up again briefly, the increased tension tightening the wires even further. So a second impact with the floor followed, right after the two Naruto's came crashing down to their exact location.

A loud crash was heard by the spectators and when the smoke cleared, all that was visible was Naruto, holding kunais to the throats of two Kiba's. The floor upon which they lied cracked in several places.

**Winner: Uzumaki Naruto!**

* * *

A.N.: 

To all my readers. I'm sorry. Really, so, so sorry.

This chapter is way too late and so, so awfull.

I didn't get in half the things that should be there. Like Sasuke talking to Kakashi before he gets the counter-seal, Naruto's actual flying clones and Anko having wild animal sex with our favorite Ramen cook. … No seriously. The bigger part of this chapter has been on my hard drive for months, I really got stuck with the last fight, hence this rather unoriginal excuse for a climax.

I really hate writing combat. Especially ninja combat. Kept this one as "low-tech" as possible and I still fail to explain that what happened was that together with his wok, Naruto had brought in one of those plastic thingies with an assortment of x-ty spices in them and in the end he blows it up right underneath the dogs noses. He's gonna have a hell of a time explaining that one to Hinata, since she bought it for him.

No really guys. I'm going to give this story a decent finish if it kills me, but it's gonna take a long time probably. And when I've done that maybe I'll finally rework everything so the layout and spelling don't look like that of a five year old. Until then, for your own sake, don't stick with me.


	12. Chapter 12

"At last we meet again. You have soiled my territory for far too long, so realize that this meeting will be our last. I am you judge, jury and executioner and my sentence upon you, is death!"

"Dude, are you done with the dramatics? Some of these guys over here are nearly losing it and you're playing Shakespeare with the thing in the fridge."

"Hehehe, sorry. But relax, I'm sure we'll be fine", the other clone replied as he scrubbed away.  
"Ugh, it's alright," a sweaty, pale looking clone said. "I'm just sorry I never got to painting a self-portrait."  
"**Guys! It's over. We won.**"  
Immediately the blond's apartment together with the Uchiha mansion got a lot less crowded.

**scene break, back to the preliminaries**

"**Aaaaaargh!**" Naruto screamed as he clutched his forehead and fell down on his knees. It felt like it would burst any second. The fact that the paprika in his hair now fell down his eyes wasn't helping either. Several long seconds passed in silence as everybody was eyeing him cautiously, before he got up slowly, his hands still pressing down his hair. All the way up, he felt the stares of his fellow genin, one pair of piercing eyes felt near tangible.

'_Uzumaki … __perhaps I have chosen my prey wrongly. You are interesting. What inner demons haunt you? Or maybe I will just hunt you both.'_

_'Amazing! I figured Naruto was up to that speed, he might have been able follow my movements the first time I used it on his teammate, Sasuke's use of it just now, that one he clearly must have seen through. But to execute it so perfectly, without even a Sharingan, he must be better in taijutsu then he lets on. Yet he specializes in ninjutsu? Naruto, I don't know what you have yet to show, but perhaps you should really reconsider your specialization.'_

_'He never intended to hit Kiba with those kunai when he threw them through the smoke. He just wanted to blind us. Damnit dobe, what did you just pull?!'_ the frustrated Sasuke just frowned, a little more then usual. _'That idiot never kept secrets. He always used to show off what he could. He didn't even use Kage Bunshin in this fight. He couldn't be so insecure about the Sand nin that he wouldn't even show them his trademark jutsu. He never made long term plans before, but he's definitely up to something. And what's with this headach?. He never had those either.'_

"Congratulations Naruto! You fought a most valiant battle! I'm sure Gai-sensei agrees," the ever enthousiastic bowl-cut boy spoke. "I sure do Lee! Naruto, you have kept yo-"  
"Thank you Maito-sama, Lee-sempai, but could this wait please? I've got a killer headache", he interrupted the two.  
"Oh yes, of course, Naruto-kun."

"Hinata-chan", the blond red head smiled in a whisper.  
"Naruto-kun, are you alright?" she asked, truly concerned.  
"I'm fine, nothing to worry about", he tried to laugh, but ended groaning.  
"You were screaming. You never –"  
"It's alright. Just some aftereffect from a jutsu I've been maintaining for too long apparently. Last one was a biggy." "What are talking ab- Never mind", she changed her mind, knowing he would say he'd tell her in due time, like always. Like she would tell him … in due time.

"Here, take one of these," she offered him a small box, "it's what Shino and I use if Kiba's in one of his loud moods."  
"Thanks … Oh Hinata?"  
"Yes?"  
"I'm sorry about blowing up your spice container."

Lee's sensei, the Green Beast himself was having some thoughts of his own. _'Kakashi-san, my eternal rival, how can I believe this boy when he says you do not see his obvious talents? Surely, you do not need a Sharingan to spot his burning passion to learn. For him to copy Lee's jutsu after only having seen it twice takes skill. To show it to me and letting me know you are wearing over two hundred pounds, under the eyes of all these assembled ninja, without making them any wiser about it, takes even more. Obviously this boy's burning spirit yearns for my guidance. Yosh! Naruto-kun, I will not let you down! Maito Gai is a man of his word.'_

"What was that last smokescreen all about? You think Naruto's got some kind of secret special move he doesn't want anyone to know about?" the blond kunoichi asked her teammate. This last one was actually baffled he hadn't seen this one coming. Sure, he had noticed the giant wok the blond had taken along the second part of the exam, but he would've never considered his old classmate to carry seasonings on him. And that he'd actually use them to … spice things up in combat.

"No. At least not everyone. Look at the smoke residue that's dissipating as we speak. There is none around the Hokage or the older Leaf Team. I understand why he would want the Hokage to be able to see, but why the other team? He only spoke to Lee and Gai, so they might know. If you really want to know, I guess you might want to ask them. Or Naruto himself for that matter."

'_What are you hiding Naruto? What is it you don't want us too see? And why? Jeezes you kids can be so annoying. I could ask Hayate or the Hokage what he did. Shit__, even Gai saw what he did. Why did he let Gai see?' _were the thoughts of Hatake Kakashi. He was getting frustrated about Naruto's behavior. He just didn't understand the kid's thought pattern anymore.

'_Hmmm, our little Naruto has sure grown up. I'm giving him bonus points for that last maneuver. No need for anyone to know huh? I wonder how long he has been working on that speed. Can't be that long since his team obviously doesn't know about it, or he doesn't want them to know at least. Well, then who am I to go and tell them. Kakashi is a capable jounin, he can figure this out on his own and I trust Naruto's judgment. He probably did it just for the chuunin exam. Why else would someone their age keep such things from his team? Oh well, time to start the next match_', the Hokage pondered upon the things he had recently heard and now seen in this match.

He smiled, noticed Kakashi saw this and felt the frustration dripping of the silver haired veteran, upon which the Hokage stuck his thumb up and grinned, all very swift and un-Sarutobi like. Despite his age, he still loved messing with his underling's heads.

"You blew up the spices I got you right underneath Kiba's nose?!" a pale eyed girl eeped in surprise. "I said I was sorry. I'll make it up to you."  
"Naruto, that tube contained over seven different kinds of pepper alone! Kiba's going to be steaming about this for a-", she stopped as he suddenly grabbed her arm.  
"Erhm, Hinata?" the blonde's suddenly just pointed at the announcing board.

"**Hyuuga Hinata vs. Haruno Sakura."**

"Alright! There's no way you're going to lose to her. Go get her Hinata-chan. Aaaaah, my head." Naruto enthusiastically started but then ended silently grudging.

Hinata smiled as he wished her the best, but she couldn't help but feel bad about how easily Naruto was rooting against his own teammate. He gave her a thumbs up and a wink.

Sakura herself had of course heard as well. She gave no reaction and wasn't surprised about his. Ever since they had arrived in the tower, Naruto had barely spoken a word to her. They had only seen each other in the shared bedroom and the mess hall. Silently, she made her way past the blonde and down the arena.

When both girls were out of earshot it was Shino who suddenly spoke up.  
"Naruto. Why do you not stand with or support your own teammates?" he didn't even look at him, he just kept his invisible eyes on the girls.  
Naruto took no offense to this and responded in a likely manner. He took a short pause before answering, searching for the right words. "It is for the same reason that I take this exam, Shino. It is not for the honor of the title, the better pay or the higher security clearance. A chuunin gets to make choices. One of those choices is who he is willing to trust with his life. Who he will stand with is up to him."  
"You do not trust your team with your life?"

"… Say, there's something else I need to ask", he routed the whispered conversation another way. "When you witnessed Gaara in the forest. … Did he, transform in any way?"  
"No. His mental control over the earth and sand were sufficiently effective. You are saying you know more about his techniques?"  
"No, just something I picked up when I first met him."  
"Do not underestimate him Naruto, I sense a lot of hate in him. No fear. No mercy."  
"No hair on his ass either, but that's another story."

"I figured that was you."  
"Hehe, and I thought I got away with that clean. So anyway, your bugs don't like his charka?"  
"The way they described it, translated for you it would be like eating ramen with a live chicken in it, that's on fire."  
The blond seemed to give this thought an awful amount of time, like he was actually considering it. _'Well technically, you could eat it, and since the chicken's on fire you could just scoop that to the side and wait for it to be done. Would probably be more nutritious as well. Still, wouldn't want to put his bugs through that.'_

"So would there be many portions for each?" He tried coming up with something that sounded at least a little intelligent, given they were talking about fiery live chicken ramen.  
"See his gourd? It's filled with sand. Every grain in there and more." "… I knew he was no average genin, but this … Meet me tomorrow at your team's usual lunch place."  
"Hai."

'_You wouldn't make me eat flaming chicken ramen, would you?_' a leftover clone communicated to his original with a little worry in his tone.  
'_Hehe, nha. Besides, I'm sure that if I make a hundred of you guys, at least ten would volunteer for the job themselves.'_ Naruto grinned to himself.  
The clone took this into consideration before responding _'Yeah, but how many you think would eat the whole chicken?'_

**scene break****, one story lower  
**  
"Hajime!" Hayate said in a slow voice as he jumped back from between the two cutest combatants the little arena had seen in quite a while.  
The thought that blood would be shed in this match hadn't even entered anyone's mind. … Well maybe one or two.  
Sakura immediately jumped back to put a few yards between her and Hinata. She hadn't actually seen the girl fight since the academy, but what she remembered from that wasn't that frightening at this point. However, hadn't Shino mentioned something about her kicking Kiba's ass? If that was true, the pink haired kunoishi was sure things would be looking bad for her. Frustration was visible on her face.

The heiress of the Hyuuga main house however stood there, unmoving. She had not even entered a fighting stance. On the outside she might have looked calm and at peace, inside her head a veritable storm of thoughts raced.  
Naruto's old crush on the girl, her being put on his team, her never ending stream of insults, rejections and disproval of the boy she so longed for. Still there were the memories of pre-academy times, of her, Sakura and Ino playing together in the era before boys. She knew how much Naruto disliked his team, and she couldn't imagine him doing so without reason.

But this wasn't a fight where her emotions should play part. This was a chuunin examination; A time where she could test and prove her way and skill of the ninja; A chance to show what she could do, to herself, her village and maybe even her clan. She resisted looking at her cousin at that last thought. But if not for all of those, this was a chance to prove herself to him.

It suddenly seemed as though her time for considering how much to kick Sakura's ass was running out as the girl in question had just launched two kunai at her. Hinata was unfazed and stood her ground, stoically she waited until the last possible moment and then in one swift motion she caught the first one and used it to deflect the other.

At the end of the fluid motion she sent the weapon hurling back at her opponent. She hadn't even activated her Byakugan. It just came spontaneous to her and it showed, while the look on Sakura's face offered enough signs of fear of the oncoming metal that even a six year old could see them for what they were. Narrowly dodging her own weapon Sakura shot forward to get in close with the other girl; not knowing the favored fighting style of probably the most powerful clan in her own village, no matter how one looked at it, this did not show much signs of great intelligence.

In her defense, the pink haired kunoishi did manage to produce three additional bunshin while she was heading at Hinata at full speed. The pale eyed girl briefly smiled. Her bloodline still inactive the brief memory of her training with Kurenai-sensei flashed before her eyes, mimicking this very situation. Though the eyes of her family were immune to genjutsu of nearly any kind, her sensei specialized in the use of it. So one of Kurenai's favorite trainings to increase her student's taijutsu was to disallow their special senses and make them fight multiple illusionary opponents.

And not to forget, she trained with Naruto.

Before Sakura even realized what exactly was going on Hinata had weaved through her bunshin. A calculated set of movements left the girl unhampered by any of them, while pressing a single finger on various non-vital points of the clones as she passed each.  
Since she was unable to tell the difference between real and illusionary until she touched them out of existence Sakura got the exact same treatment. The struck girl fell yelping to the ground, clutching her upper left arm. As she went over the striking motion in her head again, the pink haired girl looked at her arm, not understanding how such a light tap could leave her arm this numb.

Naruto grinned, remembering his first contact with the gentle fist style. He looked around and saw Ino looking in confusion, listening to Shikamaru who seemed to be giving a bored explanation. Kankuro and Temari frowned at the sight, Gaara didn't seem to care. Sasuke apparently was getting a detailed explanation from Kakashi. Lee and Gai's team were familiar with the style of course. Neji … Hinata's nephew and designated Branch House bodyguard –who seemed to hate the Main House with a vengeance-, was looking with disapproval. Wheither it was because of the use of her style, the weak opponent she had been assigned or simply with disdain for Hinata, Naruto couldn't guess.

He looked back at Hinata and seemed lost in space for a couple of seconds. He shook himself out of it, yelled another encouragement and then headed in Neji's direction.

Silently he approached. "Hyuuga Neji-san, your cousin is quite good.""It is your teammate's lack of skill that makes her look good. Hinata could not even defeat her younger sister", he answered without turning his head.  
"Then maybe it is time for a rematch since I was not talking about the current fight."  
"I presume you have trained with her then. In that case perhaps it is you who needs to reevaluate your own capabilities, Uzumaki."  
"I think I know what I am capable of better then you. But I didn't come here to talk about myself."  
"You wish to discuss Hinata?" the long haired boy snarled his whisper and made actual eye contact for the first time in the conversation.  
"Actually no, but it is good to see you do still are concerned about her. I just wanted to suggest that if you take your job as her protector serious and you value your own life, you should talk to her about a strategy for either of you against Gaara. Trust me Neji-san, you should not underestimate his strength and brutality. I shall leave you with this thought as this is not a time, nor place to discuss matters like this."

That was actually an excuse just to leg it the hell out of there as Naruto didn't want Hinata see him talking to Neji. Basically he just wanted to be an invisible ice breaker for her. If the guy was as much a tight ass as he looked she could use all the help she could get. Of course, if she knew about that fact it wouldn't do her confidence much good.  
He made it back just in time as well as Hinata was making her way back up the stairs.

(A.N.: So actually, the fight between Hinata and Sakura is already over. However since none of you guys would probably stand for that we'll be going over it real quick. I really feel like I'm pulling a DBZ right now. )

**scene break**

"You barely touched me. How is that possible?" the long pink haired girl seemed to demand an explication.  
"You know Sakura," the timid girl softly spoke, "this really isn't time for 21 questions. Besides," she suddenly added with a naughty grin, "I could tell you. But then I'd have to kill you."  
And for a second Hinata actually looked threatening as she was so nervous saying something like this that she forgot to laugh.

Then suddenly from somewhere behind her on the balcony it came: "Tell her!"  
She couldn't help but giggle.

"I destroyed your clones by brushing the slightest amount of charka against them, like I did to your arm. Now imagine that I would do this with a larger amount of charka, near a vital organ. I don't want to hurt you, but you will not defeat me Haruno." For a second the look of doubt and terror was clear on Sakura's face. Hinata had clearly outgrown her. Her proficiency in taijutstu was far greater then her own, even with all the extra training she had gone through the last months. There was no way she could take on the timid girl in a straight fight. Then suddenly she smirked and got up again as she realized again that they were ninja and straight fights were things not for them.

"You might have been able to intercept my kunai and get past my clones, Hinata. But don't be a fool to think that's all I can do."  
"Then show me", she said fearless and finally took up a fighting stance.

Sakura immediately started forming seals. Not even a second later the stadium was filled with plumes of quickly vanishing smoke, bursting out from them just as suddenly were the copies of her team. The Naruto's came dashing towards Hinata, while their darker counterparts took up strategic positions and started their own seals. The copies of herself launched their projectiles yet again. In the midst of all this chaos Hinata stood unshaken, unmoved, waiting patiently for the first flame of the Sasuke clones to obscure everything from view.

The instant after the onslaught of attacks everything was white again for the onlookers above as the illusions disappeared once more in the clouds of their imagination. As the effects of the jutsu faded, they revealed the form of Hinata, trying to stand as casual as her personality allowed, in the exact same spot where she had been all the time, Sakura laying at her feet.

**Winner: Hyuuga Hinata!**

"Sugoy! Hinata-chan! That was so cool, you barely had to move the entire match."  
"Thank you, Naruto-kun," she blushed a little, but smiled and looked him in the eye. "Sakura really had no idea about my abilities though. So since she's supposed to be a genjutsu type, it really wasn't that hard."  
"Yeah well, she's also supposed to be the smart one of our team, so she at least should know a tiny bit about the fighting abilities of her own village's clans," Naruto defended her fair victory. Since Hinata even remembered Sakura's individual style, his point was fair struck.  
"So only four left, right? Your cousin, Lee, Ino and Zaku from Sound. Chances of Lee getting his wish are one out of six now. And half of that entirely depends on himself. He must be ecstatic!" They dared throwing a glance and were instantly stabbed in the eye with a vision of Gai encouraging his two students in a little open arena on a tropical sunlit beach, palm trees and all. Lee clenched his fists in expectation.

Then the announcement board stopped.

**Hyuuga Neji vs Yamanak****o Ino**

The moment the blond girl read it she looked at Neji. They had _met_ before in the Forest of Death. She knew full well who he was; Rookie of the year, Hyuuga and Hinata's older cousin. She knew he was not to be messed with and regarded her as a mere nuisance when it came to fighting. His eyes only told her what she already knew. She wouldn't last a minute in there.  
She looked down in the arena and saw the medics carrying Sakura through the side exit. She swallowed as her brain went through the recent memories of today. Her teammate Chouji had also lost to one of the Sound Ninja. Neither of them were gravely injured. Kiba had been beaten the shit out by Naruto, though even their slugfest had seemed minimal considered to what she had imagined between those two. The older girl from Neji's team had been cut up al over by that Sand chick and her brother had _killed_ that other guy. One more look at Neji sufficed, she knew what she had to do. She inwardly cursed something about not letting Haruno out do her, jumped down and by the time she landed was sure that this was the right thing to do if she wanted to keep in charge of Shikamaru.

Neji gallantly dropped to her level and slowly took his place.  
"I will not be as merciful as my cousin Yamanako-san. Forfeit, you know you cannot even hope to win this fight."  
"I know that,", she frowned, then her expression suddenly changed, "so please take it easy on me Neji-kun!" She flashed him a sexy-Ino look.  
Neji's otherwise static eyebrows suddenly twitched. "Don't do that again."  
"Ooh, because you don't want to hit me anymore now?" she continued her semi-jutsu.

**Hajime!**

"No." he paused, "Because it makes me want to kill you," he stated emotionlessly and then suddenly shot forward. In less then 2 seconds he had covered the distance between them. A fraction later and he had slipped between her defenses and struck a tenketsu in her neck. Before she even knew it, Ino was out and down for the count.

**Winner: Hyuuga Neji**

Lee had been in the arena the second the referee announced the winner. His luck had disappointed him, he first thought, but then he reassured himself that fortune would favor him in the finals. If he could prove there that hard work can overcome genius, more people would be able to witness his formidable accomplishment and could become inspired. He was certain now, that was the way it was meant to be.  
After that private little pep talk to himself, he reconsidered his opponent. He knew he could beat this guy, he had tried to kill his beloved cherry blossom, her teammate and himself. He remembered how Sasuke had dislocated both his arms and kicked him out of sight like a crash test dummy. The proud Azure Beast almost pitied him. One of Zaku's arms appeared to have been broken. Perhaps it was the fall.  
Yet the vile looking Sound nin seemed determined to fight. He was even grinning. The young taijutsu master could not phantom why. He had already beaten, well almost, him and his teammate earlier. Now the boy was alone and injured to boot.

Lee just strengthened his resolve to fight him. This genin and his team had been to kill Sakura and her teammates. For an instant he wondered where Naruto had been in that fight, but he let it go and waited for his opponent. Once Zaku had assumed his position the referee gave the start signal.

The student of Konoha's Proud Green Beast gave it no second thought and dashed for his opponent. Zaku barely had time to aim his arm and fire a blast of air right at the incoming Lee, but at the last moment this once transformed into a green blur that dodged his attack with ease and was now approaching him from a different angle at a much higher speed.  
Before he could fire another blast Lee's face stood perfectly still right in front of him. Then he felt it; the effect of an iron fist flying against his chin at high speed. The Azure Beasts uppercut sent him straight upwards for a few meters. As he was coming back towards the ground Zaku aimed his arm to the ground to cushion his impact, but was suddenly hit in the side and now heading towards the wall at even higher speeds. The words Konoha Sempu seemed to register somewhere in his brain, but were quickly disappearing again, just like the rest of his consciousness. The cracks in the beige wall seemed to grow, their black lines spreading all over his eyesight, until only darkness remained.

'_Man __being fast is so cool. And he's still carrying those weights from Gai. I wonder how much he's got activated now. I can keep up with this speed no problem, but he's probably not even trying. … Now how DID Sasuke get that fast all of a sudden? Their must be some sort of trick. He didn't suddenly start carrying around heavy stuff in the forest and I doubt he even knew that this was how Lee got his speed. So he's not relying just on his muscles, he enhances them with chakra.'_

After Lee was declared the winner and Zaku was carried outside the final winners were called down the arena once again. There the sickly looking jounin referee Gekko Hayate told them to draw a ball from the bag he presented. Once each genin had taken one of the numbered balls, they were presented with the following match up:

Naruto vs Temari  
Sasuke vs Gaara

Dosu vs Neji  
Lee vs Kankuro

Hinata vs Shikamaru

Naruto gulbed loud when he saw who Sasuke was paired with. It just figured the raven haired boy would get the best opponent, with a lethal temper to boost. Now even if he beat Sasuke it would look like the Sand nin already got the best of him, while he himself only got to deal with the powerhouse's little older sister. From there on out it looked like Lee was getting another chance at his wish before the final, if only he and Neji could defeat their already designated opponents. While Hinata would directly meet him in the final Battle Royal after she definitely kicked Shikamaru's ass!

After the genin had remembered their match up and gotten a little time to wonder over the possible sequels, the Hokage gave them the rest of the story. They were given a training period of exactly one month, after which they would face of at the great village arena under hundreds of spectators, including the damyiao's . He also revealed that the winner not automatically became chuunin. Lot's of other factors were being taken into account. He finished with wishing them good luck and dismissed them.

**scene break  
**

"So, what do you think of him now?" the old Kage asked the figure lurking in the shadows, once he had withdrawn himself to another room.

"Well, he's a sneaky little brat, that's for sure. It seems despite Kakashi's thoughts the kid's already got something going on with Gai," the old frog hermit had apparently noticed.  
"Actually, I think that's an entirely new development. I was going over the review tapes from the academy exam and it seems he only met Gai until right before the first test."

"Do you think that's were his clone went after he left your office?"  
"Unlikely. Gai said he'd only train him if he showed him he could fight with the same weights Lee was wearing at the time."  
"And he shows him he can by winning his match using mostly tai jutsu, with a move from Gai's personal arsenal to boot. Which reminds me, how exactly did he figure out that jutsu?"  
"When he and his team were moving through room 2C Lee had a quick little spar with Sasuke. Lee used it there, but Naruto interrupted the jutsu. He seemed really ticked off that Lee would injure his teammate, but that could have been just for venting his frustration. I'll show you the tape later."

The two elder men continued to exchange pleasantries while discussing the potential Chuunin candidates and the places they thought the remaining genin might best belong in the future.

** Chapter End  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Author's Note:**

Once again a seriously late chapter. Halfway through I suddenly decided to rewrite lots of things and finally deducted that I really couldn't come up with anything else.

But it's okay, the second exam is finally over.

Man, this little fic of mine is taking longer then the fillers.  
Anyway, a thanks to all my reviewers, I'll try to bring the next one up faster.


	13. Chapter 13

_As our young blond hero came home that evening to his spotless apartment he noticed the new content of his scroll rack. He smiled and sloughed further to the open panel door of his bedroom where he dropped himself face forward op the mattress. The return of the clones' consciousnesses had taken a lot out of him. Much more then he had shown. But now he could finally take a reassured rest that it hadn't been all for nothing. Vision and thoughts faded from this realm as he slipped into another_

From tomorrow on, he had one month, 30 days to train himself. And he would, to the bone. He had come too far to ruin the perfect chance for everybody to recognise him as an able ninja. And he wasn't about to let anyone come between that.

Somewhere else in the village a pale lavender eyed girl performed her own bedtime rituals. Slowly she removed her jacket, revealing her normally ever hidden, newly sprouting bosom. Undoing herself of her blue t-shirt and snugly fitting black shorts, she grabbed the freshly lain pyjamas from her bed and hurriedly put on the light blue silks. She tossed the old clothes in the designated basket which he discretely took out to the hallway. New ones would be delivered tomorrow. A quick visit to the bathroom and she gracefully slipped in between the sheets. At dawn her new personal training with her father would commence. That thought brought about as much fear up in her as it did happiness.  
For a long time she had hoped to train again with him, but she now feared of only letting him down again. The thought that he only did it to prevent an even greater humiliation to the Hyuuga clan had more then once crossed her mind. But now she let the worrying thoughts slide as she too took of to soar the skies of her subconscious.

And as the rest of Konohagakure dozed off a sleepless individual let his eyes roam over the city. Even at night there were abundant noises from everywhere; the forest creatures of the night, bars and taverns across the town and nearby streams rushing through their bedding.  
It was nothing like the Sand.  
Near endless deserts surrounded his home town and the silence at night would only be broken by the screams of dying prey. Be it his or those of other predators, he wouldn't have it any other way.

At least the noise would help him to stay awake. He would have to face off Shukaku's presence bad enough the day he would demolish this place. There was no need to endanger his strength of will.  
At long last he settled himself down in order to meditate. Nirvana was only a few moments from reach until the nearby barking of a stray dog interrupted his concentration. A brief glimpse from his eye and a closed fist later, he restarted the ritual.

Morning had broken soon enough in the hidden village of the Leaf, but when the sun's first rays broke through Naruto's window they were too late to find him anywhere in the apartment. Instead he was already picked up by the dynamic bowl cut duo to join them in their morning jog. At first Gai and Lee had been treated to a heated, insulting welcome. But when they overheard him mumbling something about a shipment of flaming chicken ramen coming in and him needing to be a Ichiraku headquarters to light the fire with a forbidden jutsu they recognized his sleep drunkenness for what it was. Despite their team's rigid training schedule Tenten was still prone to do this as well.

Now they were moving at high speed through the forest surrounding the village. Lap eight and counting. Gai looked back over his shoulder and was pleased to see his small new apprentice had still to show any signs of fatigue.  
"Naruto-kun, it's good to see another youngster who isn't afraid to burn his youthful flame to his fullest extend. Tell me where you trained before," Gai loudly spoke as he slightly sped up the pace.  
"Well," the young blond spoke up between breaths, "I normally go running against the village wall. Figured I could increase my stamina and my chakra control simultaneously."  
"Ah, the trusted stone barrier around Konoha. You know, me and Lee used to go training there. We didn't use our chakra to stick to the walls though."  
"Huh? Then how did you-"  
"Okay Lee, from here on we're finishing this lap at top speed!" he interrupted the oncoming question, knowing Naruto would understand by their actions. "You better give it all you got Naruto-kun, I need to know for your training under the mighty Gai-sensei! Ready? One, two, GO!"

And away they were. Naruto, never having been able to try out his own top speed since he upped his weight training, was surprised of his own current performance. He must have gone over trice the speed he went before he started the training, and he was still wearing the weights, the newly increased ones. But Lee and Gai just left him trailing their dust. Another ten seconds and they were gone from his view. The blond was determined however. He wasn't about to let Gai down, this was a test to probe his abilities and by god he would show what he was made off.

He arrived about a minute later. The two of them were doing one handed pull-ups from the branches they had been moving over moments before. '_Damn, and they say Neji's the strong one? What does he do? Byakugan alone shouldn't protect someone from those speeds. Same principal as the Sharingan. It seems everybody is moving like lightning or got a taijutsu style these days. Glad I hopped on that wagon on time. Otherwise I might have even gotten my ass kicked by that Rain nin.'_

"You have come a long way since wearing these Naruto-kun", Gai said pleased as he tossed him the old weighed down kunai poaches. The blonde caught the two one handed, swung them over his shoulders and leaned to a tree to catch his breath for a few seconds.  
"Thanks, Gai-sensei, but it seems I still have a far way to go", he smiled with his eyes closed.  
"Ha! My Lee-kun is your senior over a year and has had the privilege to train under the Mighty Green Beast of the Leaf himself! You on the other hand seem to have reached this far, while hiding your training from your entire team. That is remarkable, but not admirable Naruto. It is however also a quality from my eternal rival Kakashi. Yet I still believe it makes for bad teamwork if your comrades don't know your qualities."  
"Perhaps that works for people who are faster and stronger then pretty much everybody Gai-sensei; but the rest of us need a couple of aces up our sleeves. Just in case, you know, we meet someone like you."

This got him a hearty laugh from the man and a pat on the back that nearly threw him a few stories down. "Very well, Naruto-kun. I have seen that your intentions were true and you do really want to train to grow stronger then your rival through hard work. So I accept and will train you in the art of Tekken!"  
"Eh? I thought you would help me in improving my speed?"

"Did you think running would be the only thing you'd do in combat? Speed is only there to get you from one place to another fast. What you do when you get there," he said and punched the trunk of the tree they stood on, "is an entirely different thing."  
Naruto agreed with this statement as he saw the forest giant's upper half reduced to splinters.

"So you're really serious about helping me train?! Won't you be too busy training Lee and Neji?"  
"Neji has always trained himself, with great results; and Lee is as enthusiastic as adamant to help a fellow hard working ninja proof he can beat his genius rival."  
"Great! When do we start?"  
"Lee and I will be heading to the dojo to take a shower and have a hearty breakfast to strengthen ourselves throughout the rest of our training filled day. One cannot enjoy the springtime of youth on an empty stomach. Meet us at training area 12 in an hour."

The blond nodded and made to take off to enjoy a meal himself. Before he could take another step though, he was halted by Gai's booming voice once again.  
"Oh and Naruto."  
"Hai?"  
"I couldn't help but notice your clothes look kinda small on you. Here!" he said as he threw him a small package. "You'll see how much more comfortable this is to wear."  
Naruto could only gulp as he opened the small package and took a look at the contents.

"Again!"  
Hinata heard only the strict tone in her father's voice as he had once again managed to get behind her defenses and exerted enough force to drop her on the dojo tatami. Yet with determination she got to her feet and assumed her position.  
Hiashi, although not showing it, was actually pleased with his daughter's progress. He recognized the look in her eyes for what it was, it was no longer fear. Hinata had always shown fear in her eyes at sparring. May it have been that of hurting others or getting hurt herself, such looks were taboo for any Hyuuga. But now, there was only determination visible. Right now he was testing her boundaries. If by the end of the day she had performed satisfactory, tomorrow he would instruct her in the use of Advanced Jyuuken.

He didn't know how the blond had changed her temper, but he was glad he had closed an eye on their "secret" training. Hiashi had known of course, the notion that they thought they could keep anything from the all seeing eyes of the Hyuuga had been amusing as well as shameful to him. His daughter should have known the true range of the Byakugan could oversee just about the entire Leaf village. Admittedly, she had been left to train on her own most of the time, so practically all that she knew of her family technique, she had found out on her own. Now that she would have to demonstrate her skills in front of half the populace of Konoha, he was seriously reconsidering his decision from all those years ago.

Yes, it indeed seemed like he had a lot to thank the container child for, he thought as he nearly cracked a smile as Hinata once again got up from the ground after he had delivered her another stab under her ribs.

Meanwhile said blond little rogue was sweating bullets as he was making his home. The dreaded spandex bodysuit still clasped tight in his hands. Right now the packaging was still keeping it invisible to the world outside, but if it was up to Gai, said world would get to see his own personal package way too much to his liking. Granted, he needed new clothes, the old ones all too tattered, too small and the brightness was definitely starting to fade from his beloved orange.

Still … this felt like taking a step back.  
In reality, it wasn't all that bad. But Naruto knew you had to be a real hero in order to pull of wearing tights, and though confident as he was, he really doubted he was at that level yet.  
But refusing Gai's gift would be an insult, one which he didn't think he could afford to make.

'_There has to be a way out of this'_, he pondered. Searching for inspiration he let his eyes wonder. The shopping district was still mostly void of people this early in the morning, so he wasn't getting much examples from wondering townsfolk's wardrobes. That was until he passed the single best food stand in town.

"Hey Naruto! You're up bright and early. Landlord finally evicted your broke ass?" the old master of ramen greeted him as he was opening up shop.

"Ichira, you old poison mixer! Man, am I glad to see your wrinkled old face."  
"Oh, I see where this is going. And you can forget about that already. The fire aint lit yet and making the first order of the day on the house is bad for business."  
"What? No, I'm not bumming for a free meal! … Yet", he silently added at the end.  
"You're not? … Well, first time for everything I guess. So what can I do for you, ya little runt?"

"It's not so much as what you can do for me, but more like, what you can do for yourself."  
"Hmm, so we're talking business now Naruto? Ok, I'm listening."  
"Hehe. Alright; what would you think about sponsoring the next Chuunin Exam champion?"  
"Well I didn't know things were so bad around Uchiha manor," the old man teased. "What's his going rate?"  
"Tssthe. What the-. I can beat that Uchiha bastard into next week without even showing up myself!"  
"Hahahahaha. Ok squirt. What are you suggesting?"  
"I've been thinking about what you said last time and … I think I really could do with some new clothes."  
"Oh come on Naruto, you know I was just kidding that ti-"  
"No really, these are getting too small. I'm scared I'll rip them open every time I'm kicking ass. Which is pretty much all the time I might add", the blond knocked his swelling chest.  
"Ok. But I don't see what I have to do with that."  
"As a matter of fact," he continued, ignoring Ichira's argument," it's gotten so bad, Maito Gai even got me one of these!" He showed the old man the tight fitting bodysuit.  
"Oh my god, put that thing away! I don't even want to imagine you in it."  
"Yeah, you and me both, but I really need this guy to train me, so I don't think I can bail out on this."  
"Huh? What happened to your other teacher, Kakashi?"  
"He's still my official sensei, for now. The thing with Gai is just for the Chuunin exams, for now anyway. Just don't tell anybody OK, I want to keep it a secret until the finals."  
"Oh, OK. So where were you going with this sponsorship thing?"  
"Well, you know how we were always joking about me showing the world that your ramen is the real breakfast of champions and I'd bring you all the clientele you could handle?"  
"Yeah, I remember. So, you really think you can win, huh?"  
"I know I can!"  
"OK, then what's in it for you?"  
"I only ask for two things: One- no matter how crowded this place gets, there'll always be a spot for me if I drop by."  
"Done. And two?"  
"Two is much simpler really, it consists mainly of: For god's sake man, give me an apron to cover myself with!"  
"Hahaha. Fine. Come to the back and I'll give you one of Ayame's."

**scene break**

He had been flying over the city for about an hour now. Together with his partners they were scouting. Their target hadn't been at his home, neither was there any sign of him at the registered training areas. He considered the public facilities for Konoha ninja's were a waste of time, but another one of them had already checked them, just in case anyway.  
This was getting annoying. If they didn't get a trace of him soon, they'd have to start combing through the forest. And there was an awful lot of that surrounding Konohagakure.  
Before it got to that however, he would make sure there wasn't anything to be found from the high ground. There wasn't much use being in bird form if he didn't at least do that now, was there?

A few hours later luck was on his side again. As he glided past one of the mountain cliffs that surrounded the village he spotted the figure of a lone shinobi that was making his way up. The image of this person doing the dreaded one handed climbing exercise made quite an impression on the airborne bunshin, but not as much as when he noticed the grey tufts of hair sticking out from behind the blue forehead protector.

'So, he isn't as lazy as he seems. Well, at least not all the time. OK, so we found Kakashi. That means that bastard's gotta be around here somewhere as well.'  
Few moments later the little bird had obtained his original goal and informed the others of his findings. It was only half an hour later that the ever masked jounin arrived at the top of the steep mountain. Ample time thus for the bird bunshins to make a small nest between a couple of boulders. Naruto had no idea how these new clones would appear to the eyes of a Sharingan user, hell he wasn't even a 100 sure how his regular ones looked. But if luck would have it, he now had front row seats to his greatest rivals training.

The stage had been set, all players were in place, a linked shadow was holding a blank scroll and pencil at the ready in the original's apartment. All there was left to do for Naruto's side now was waiting for Hatake to start sharing his "pearls of wisdom".

**scene break**

Lunchtime, team 8's training spot:

"You wanted to discuss Gaara?" a quiet voice spoke as the newcomer joined him.  
"Hai. We both know he is not your average run-of-the-mill genin, Shino. I'm not even sure if he's a genin at all at this point."  
"Both me and Hinata have confirmed his unusual chakra. However having such large amounts of it doesn't immediately qualify you for Chuunin or higher rank, as you well should know, Naruto."  
"Perhaps. Still, there is more: The day I first met them, before the exams started, one of us followed them. They seemed to know their way around and ended up at the arena."  
"So they knew from the start they would make it to the finals, and even where these would be?"  
"They seemed to know more then me at the time anyway. It was there that I overheard something about Gaara's technique. Kankuro claimed there would be not a single ninja in the leaf that can stop Gaara when he transforms. '_The leaf won't know what hit'em.'_ Those were his exact words, I believe. After that their jounin instructor arrived. He scalded them for their loose tongues, warning our Anbu might overhear and then left with them."  
"I see … They did not simply come here then to get their promotion." The sunglassed genin paused for a while, thinking over the situation.  
"Have you discussed this with your sensei?"  
Naruto's form froze for a second. Now that he retold the story to someone, he realized this indeed may be a matter of national security and he probably should have reported this right away.  
"No. It didn't seem that concerning at the time. Just 3 genin boasting and a strict sensei, you know?"  
"Hai. But that curtain has fallen now Naruto. You should report this to the proper authorities at once. His strength as we know it now is already quite formidable. It is quite possible, they were not boasting at all."

"You are right, Shino-san. We'll do so right away", he spoke, then nodded in agreement with the bug user only to suddenly vanish in smoke. Shino wasn't even surprised, he had known he was talking to a clone the second one of his bugs crawled up it and took the slightest taste of its chakra.

**scene break**

"Okay Sasuke, before I start training you in the the way I have in mind, we must first conduct a little test to see if I'm right about this", the jounin stated without even looking at his subordinate. Instead his eye was giving all it's attention to the steadfast orange book the silver haired Leaf ninja was so fond of.  
The black haired genin immediately put up a defensive position as his teacher reached in his side pouch, but instead of a kunai he produced a little slip of paper.  
"Not another paper test," the young boy groaned between his teeth.  
"I'm afraid so, however this paper test isn't anything like the one you took at the Exam." He flicked the little sheet at his student who caught it between fingers. "Concentrate a bit of your chakra in it."  
And so he did, but not before looking at the internal structure of the object through his blood red eyes. There were definitely traces of chakra inside. Before he could ask Kakashi gave his explanation.  
"This paper was made from a tree that was exposed to high amounts of chakra during it's long lifetime. Nearly every fibre in it contains a potent natural residue of chakra. Just pour in the slightest amount and you'll see."  
Eager to see what would happen his student complied. The paper wrinkled up dynamically.  
"That's it?" Sasuke asked annoyed at the little reaction and what Kakashi had made it sound like, annoyed that he hadn't come to expect such stupidity from his sensei.  
"Yes. That's perfect."

**scene break **

'_Fuck he's fast with those seals! Did anybody get that?'  
'I got the last two. Anyone else got something?'  
'Yeah, I got a fe-'_

Suddenly the mental conversation between the various onlookers got cut off because of loud screech piercing the air, as if a thousand birds all cried out at once. The one of them that was still in that form at this time flew off, away from the mountain top he had just been observing. Or at least until he was out of their field of vision, since he took that opportunity to cling to the stones and change into a lizard.

'_You got to be freaking kidding me. He's going to teach him THAT?!'  
'That's the technique he killed Haku with!'  
'Great, another technique that can only be used to kill, maim or just cut through stuff with. Just what we needed,'_ one couldn't help but sarcastically remark, '_I thought this was just a tournament. Why in god's name is everybody suddenly so intent on bloodshed?'  
'It's a ninja tournament dumb ass. But you've got a point; it isn't like Kakashi to teach something like that.'  
'Something that powerful?'  
'Something that dangerous?'  
'Something that useful. You think this has something to do with Orochimaru?'  
'Then why go through all that trouble of explaining the elemental jutsu stuff? Fire is weak to Water, Water is weak to Earth, Earth is weak to Lightning, Lighting is weak to Wind, Wind is weak to Fire. Gaara's obviously an Earth user, so he teaches him Lightning.'  
'Hey guys, I think I've got all the seals from combining what you all saw! Now just pay attention when the bastard does it so we can make sure'_ the lone bunshin at headquarters sounded in all four their minds.  
'_Awesome! So, what do you think he's gonna do for us?'  
'Huh, what do you mean?' the lizard looked up at the nest in surprise.  
'Well, technically he's still our teacher, right? So isn't he supposed to look after all his students?'  
'Yeah right, like he ever followed that guideline in a serious way.'  
'Point taken. Hey look, the dipshit is going to give it a try.'_

**scene break**

That evening, for the first time in a very, very long while, Naruto came home from a grueling day of supervised training. Apparently though, that was not enough, as there was an eviction notice hanging on his front door as he came up to his apartment. He instantly pulled it down and threw it in the trash, remembering it as a prank of one of his clones.  
He had only just slumped by the kitchen table as he saw another note addressed at him. Hoping it were some pointers the clone had written about the newest addition to his jutsu library, a most prized one indeed, he quickly skimmed over it, the memories of writing it nearly himself slowly coming back to mind. As a matter of fact, he didn't even finish reading it.

"_Naruto,_

_If you are actually reading this, you must be an even bigger idiot then everybody has been claiming for years. The reason of course being that you wrote this yourself. Or made me do it at least.  
Allow me to explain by example; Remember the time that time in the chuunin prelims that Sasuke performed the aerial version of his Lion Combo? Yeah, you do, you mouthed that technique when he finished. Funny, right? Always having seen and done something, not knowing there were actually names for the moves. And then, all of a sudden, just like that, you just know what everything needs to be called! Now here's the kicker. Do you know why that is? Because you only just read about it 5 minutes earlier! _

_Jeezes, what a master mind you are!  
You actually knew all this all along; you even explained it to Hinata when you got that headache, for christ's sake, you just never gave it any thought. Well now I did it for you. And you know what?  
Well actually you do know, I guess, but just in case you don't, I'll tell you this: I've been practicing Kage Bunshin all day, we've visited the library, the training fields and the comic book store. So prepare for an onslaught of useless knowledge headed your way."_

**scene break **

She had left the village though the northern gate some time ago and was now making her way slowly to the neighbouring farming community. At five feet tall the petite, perfectly endowed blond is a rare kind of universal beauty, appreciated by all men. Yet her unearthly good looks made most shy away from her, intimidated by her natural grace. It was only natural she had come to prefer dominating men. Men without shyness, men of bravery and once so often; men with power. Perhaps that is why she couldn't help herself from briefly gasping out loud when the image of the grey haired ninja suddenly appeared before her.

"Going somewhere?" he stated, rather then asked.  
"You know I have to return to my home village, despite how much I really want to stay", she came closer to him and started to gently rub his arms.  
"I know my little apple blossom", he answered, cupping her face with his right hand.  
"… But I guess I could run a little late." She winked and moved her hands lower.

"Maybe even a little longer if I help you make up some ti-

Suddenly the grey haired jounin was pulled out of his favourite fictional world by a tuft of orange that passed through the corner of his eye. Looking up, he saw a grown man with an orange shirt carrying around a crate of tomatoes. He shrugged, eager to get back on track with his reading, but a little nagging part of his brain stopped him from giving attention to the words.  
'_Was their something I needed to do?'_ He looked back at the man, not seeing anything out of the ordinary; just some delivery man, dropping of an order at the ramen stand. Kakashi was about to let it go and return to Icha-icha Paradise 8: "The tongue of the tiger" until the man suddenly stumbled over a rock and almost fell flat out over his cargo.  
"Fuck!"

The tall veteran still hadn't found a proper solution to the training problem for his two finalist students. He knew that Sasuke could probably use a lot of help against this Gaara character, he had felt the killer instinct that boy radiated and knew the young Aburame was valiant ninja in his own right. Despite the strange way of thinking the bug users had, Shino would have not forfeited that fight without good reason.  
On the other hand, there was Naruto.  
The blond had shown a lot of talent and responsibility in the second exam. Going as far as to keep him and the Hokage informed on his team mate's situation.

Then there was the rival thing they still had going. Kakashi was sure his relation with Naruto was already shaky at best, if he didn't get him a personal trainer for the coming month he'd probably never speak to him again.

He pondered for a moment. This would be so much simpler if he knew they boy's skills better. Perhaps he should train him himself. Sasuke's Sharingan would save them both a lot of time. He could basically just instruct him in the morning, catch a few chapters of Icha Icha and spend the afternoon with Naruto. Then again, unlike Naruto, Sasuke didn't have a near unlimited supply of training partners. Perhaps he should try training them together again. It had proved to be quite effective in the past. The only reason he hadn't continued the method had been Sasuke's awakened Sharingan. It would have been pointless making Sasuke do his techniques over and over again and would have frustrated Naruto to no end, he knew. It was at times like these he regretted ever taking on this team. Despite driving each other to go those extra miles, those two couldn't agree on the colour of the sky.

Using the rule of elimination he narrowed his options, both Kurenai and Asuma had finalists in their team, Gai had two of his own as well. He could probably talk Ebisu into it, but he had a feeling that wouldn't suit with Naruto's needs at the current time. No ... Hmm, there were few jounin already who would even want to consider training Naruto, now he had to find one either stupid or crazy enough to actually stick to it for a month. Now who would be ...

"No."  
"Oh come on, I haven't even give you my reason."  
"No forget it, Hatake I'm not doing it. Besides, I've still got jounin duties to attend to."  
"Hokage's put you off duty for unsaid duration. And its for the exact same reason why I'm asking you to train Naruto."  
"Bullshit, I know how annoying the little brat is and you just don't want to do it yourself."  
"Oh yes, I forgot you've met him. Didn't he .. save your life or something?"  
The snake user gritted her teeth. '_Yes, yes he did,'_ the humiliation still felt fresh. Being saved from the man she had vowed to kill, by a genin. Not even that, by the clone of a genin. She never did get how he- it, pulled of that kawarimi. It should be nearly impossible to switch places with a person.

"Look Anko, I just want what's best for the kids. You know Sasuke's bound to come to face with _him _again. And since Naruto's in his team chances are high that if confronted, they'll both be there." Him ofcourse being her former sensei, though he was not going to remind her of that fact.  
"Yeah, well in that case you'd be better of if you thought them both to run, really really fast; Because no amount of training is going to prepare them for that."  
"They've faced him of before."  
"And he got them, didn't he?"  
"Well, since Naruto's the one who got closest at getting him back, I'd say you're getting the better deal."  
"He." She didn't have an immediate retort for that. It was true, the kid did have potential. And he had been kind of cute with that stupid thank you note. Plus if he did annoy her too much, she already knew he made a pretty good hamster. She sighed. "What would you have me training him in. IF I'd do it, that is."  
"That's why I came to you Anko, you should know best."  
"There's only one way I know of to find out where someone needs help with in order to survive in our world. Hunt them down and try to kill them", she smiled her wicked grin.  
"Well good luck in that one. Try not to overdo it though, he'll need to be able to at least enter the exam in a month."  
"I won't be training him for the exam Hatake. This is for his survival."  
"So you'll do it then?"  
"I will. But Hatake .. you owe me."  
"Well technically you owe Naruto and he'd owe me for getting you to train him, so I suggest we call it even."  
Before the kunoichi could argue with him over this conclusion of his he had already dissapeared. Internally she vowed not to make it so easy for the scarecrow though. The least he could have done is tell her where the kid lived.

"Again! This time hold your arm straight and put your entire weight into it."  
Naruto's training under Gai was beyond what he would have imagined as tough months ago, even now after months of his own intense training, he had still trouble keeping up. Gai had him punching and kicking trees untill his limbs were bruised beyond recognition. Meanwhile, as Naruto pained himself against the wooden training instruments, he witnessed as Lee verily shredded his way through those same devices. Humbling as it was, it motivated Naruto. Strength and technique like that were something to look forward to. Then again, he realized, the techniques would lose their effectiveness against the Uchiha soon enough. They would help him get to that fight though. His first opponent was clearly a long range type. In the arena the limited amount of space would play in his advantage. The sister he could deal with. Kankuro would be more troublesome though. He had deception and versatility on his side, but then again, Naruto had those two qualities in spades. Gaara ... now there was a riddle. Control, no, absolute control of sand, shield, armor and weapon. ... He had sneaked passed it once, but to do it again in a situation where he is on his guard was highly unlikely.No, in the arena stealth would not do against that behemoth. Not that he couldn't try, lately it seemed as if there was no end to his multitasking. Which brought his attention to something...

scene break - Hokage's Tower

"Hmmm, these sound like some pretty serious accusations Naruto."  
"I'm not accusing anyone of anything Hokage, I'm merely reporting what we have observed."  
"Yes, well your report is pretty late. Had you told anyone sooner we might have looked in to the matter more deeply."  
"We weren't sure of their abilities, figured it was empty boasting from some genins who wanted to look bad ass."  
"Yes, you told me before. Very well, I shall take the necesarry actions. You don't need to worry yourself about this any further Naruto. You just prepare for the final exam."  
"Hai Hokage-oji-san. But if Gaara turns out to be-", the blond began, but was cut off by his elder.  
"Naruto. I told you, just prepare to prove your worth as a chuunin. That's all you need to worry about", this would have been the moment where he normally would have dismissed his subordinate, instead he decided to go for an uncomfortable silence.  
The clone's eyes darted around a little, thinking the Hokage was waiting for him to say something intelligent, but he couldn't come up with anything good. In the end it settled for "So .. erhm ... you got any good tips on Lightning jutsus?"

The old man grinned behind his pipe.  
"Lightning huh? So you want to take up elemental jutsus? Yes ... I think I might have something laying around ..." the old man seemed to be mumbling to himself. He rummaged in his desk for a couple of seconds but come out empty. "Hmm, doesn't seem to be here. Oh well, I'll just write it down for you."  
He grabbed a nearby empty scroll and quill, noted a few things down and threw the rolled up results to the little messenger.  
"Do me a favor though. Don't tell anybody you got this from me. And don't read it until you get home."

And with that he sent the imitation on it's way.  
As soon as the clone had exited through the window, the Hokage moved towards it. For a few seconds he closed his eyes and listened intently. Then he dropped his head and sighted to himself.  
"They grow up so quickly. I was hoping he'd try and read it as soon as he got out of sight. Or better yet, while he was still in here. .. Oh well, back to business", he took a few more sips from his pipe before he asked his secretary to send for Morino Ibiki.

**Scene Break; Back at the original**

Naruto was going through the motions of the form, hitting the wooden man over and over. Gai was a good instructor and the blond proved himself an eager student. The green beast was impressed, unlike nearly all his other students, the genin had even taken his advice on clothing. In his enthusiasm, he even went through the trouble of making some minor adjustments. The blue apron was tied deftly around his waist, the flaps hiding his weapons.

They had been going at it for the best part of the day. Lots of it had been endurance or strength training, but the last hour had been filled with technique. Kata's, kicks, punches, strikes and throws. Lee was a ready and more then willing demonstrator and Gai had a way to make the explanations behind the movements interesting enough. Numerous bruises had been healed away already, but all of them would have been worth it.

Then suddenly, the world came rushing in. Three clones that had been at shuriken practice just got a kunai in their heart. Alert signals immediately went of in the various minds, but before an emergency procedure had been established another nearby team of bunshin went up in smoke.

"Maito Gai sama, my sincerest apologies, but ... someone is desperately seeking my attention. However, if allowed, I would like to continue my training."

"... I don't see anybody Naruto. So yeah, erhm, go ahead with your training of course" Gai answered somewhat confused.

"Ok, thanks. See you tomorrow." And with that he left, leaving a few of himself behind.

Someone was baiting him, that much he knew. As he neared the village wall he met up with an aspect of himself that was foreseeing enough to have gone out and buy a pair of pants. He had switched the apron for a t-shirt while he made his way.  
'Now who'd want to see me this badly? I'm debt free at the moment and haven't pulled any pranks in quite a while. Who's that fast and sneaky, and good with kunai...? Hmm, comfy.' he pondered as he struggled somewhat with his new pants. Black and wide, with 2 orange stripes running down the legs. It was one of those new tech breathing, non-chafing fabrics. He just hoped it could live up to it's price tag.

He kept the pace low to himself but sent some clones out to scout ahead. The ones that were still at large had all changed their training to basic academy stuff and kept their eyes open for danger. It was his move, but he needed some recovery time.

All of a sudden one of him in area 27 spotted movement in the trees. The mental communication between the 5 of them there was fast enough for 2 other to also block the oncoming metal and survive the initial attack. Two of them noticed a hint of black hair and a brown piece of leather, the other was far too busy jumping away from the explosive tag attached to one of the kunai.

The pressure of the explosion blew him over a nearby bush. As he arose from the cover, 3 more followed. He was playing on defense, intended on holding his opponent here until reinforcements arrived. Without the element of surprise he figured they could hold them here for at least a few minutes.

Whoever it was they had chosen their grounds with care. Right now they were at the most remote training place and were pretty far of from most of the other groups of clones as well.

Their eyes scanned the surroundings and it wasn't long before one of them spotted something.  
"Got 'm", he grinned as he pulled his kunais from his pouch. He made out a shape behind some branches. No clear look and no chance of a shot. The first kunai flew high and wide, the second headed to intercept. Effect followed cause when the two blades connected.  
A perfect reaction, one blade collided with the other and headed straight for the target.

The humanoid shape was forced to move. Unfortunately it took high to the trees.  
The small orange swarm followed suit. In the third jump however the assailant turned mid air and took another fellow clone out with .. a toothpick. The other three now got a good look though, it was definitely a woman, they couldn't be sure who with that mask though. It looked as if it was Anbu, and by her stealth, she might as well be.

"Mitarashi Anko? Is that you?" the front one asked.  
The snake mask remained silent, her hands spoke books though. Well, seals if you want to get technical.  
_'Rat, dragon, horse, snake. .. I know those ...'  
_Shadow Snake Hand!

Two streams of snakes sprouted from the woman's sleeves. One clone nearly instantly got grabbed and exploded, the other's target narrowly dodged away. Number three took this as his chance to get in close range. She gracefully evaded all of his attacks however and once the snakes returned to her sleeves and regained use of her hands the little one was toast.

_'Only one more. Hope he doesn't split up again. Now where did he ... Ah!'_ Behind the mask a mad grin appeared.  
_'What's this woman's problem?! Can't we just talk about this ? ... If Ichira set her up to this somehow I'll have his hide!'_ The clone kept to the pace of an average genin in a hurry. She would catch up to him quickly enough, that was fine though, backup was on the way.

Then his legs came to an instant stop. He turned around and faced her, eyes wide.  
Backup just got eaten.

Her body language said she knew well enough what laid ahead of them.  
"What's the matter boy? Don't you know that prey is supposed to run?"  
"That only works if you got something to run to", was the sudden defiant answer.  
"Well standing only works if you can fight off your opponent", she bared another kunai during that sentence.

_'That's one solution, yes, however it's not my best bet in this situation.'_  
"What do you want Anko?"  
"That's easy", she answered as she flung the projectile towards his head.  
The blade crossed the 20 yards between them like lightning, instead of skin and blood though, it found the open ring of a kunai waiting for it.

He had blocked her from his view though when he raised his hand and when he dropped it, she was gone.  
A mere fraction of a second later she appeared to his left and threw a punch at his head once again. He parried with his left and came back up with metal baring in his right. She was faster though and swiped under his legs. She caught one, but he found balance in the other and kicked off on her, launching himself to a higher branch.

"You want to kill me?" the duplicate asked somewhat sarcastically.

"Believe me kid, if I wanted that, you'd already be dead." A hint of laughter could be detected behind the white snake mask. "I simply," she started walking down the branch and disappeared behind the stem, the next thing he knew she was holding a kunai to his throat and whispering in his ear, "want to see what you're capable of."_'_

There's a million things I could say to that, but which one will keep me alive and will annoy her the most?'  
"I don't know whether that should make me feel honored, scared, excited or just downright annoyed that Hatake put you up to this."  
She hesitated, just for a second, probably thinking about a witty comeback, It was at that exact moment the sound of three high explosives going off nearby reached their ears. She forced the point of the metal through his shadow woven skin, but instead of the single poof that she had expected, she got one with an added thump. As she looked down she witnessed a piece of log wrapped up with a multitude of sizzling sealing tags. _'Fuck.'_

* * *

Author's Note:

Finally, an update. And immediately another cliffhanger. Sorry for that.  
For those who stuck with me and have been waiting for a long, long time: I'm sorry.

I'll start working on next chapter the instant I've uploaded this one.

... Okay, maybe I'll correct the first one before that. Someone's been nice enough to send me a whole lot of corrections.

* * *


	14. Chapter 14

'So, Anko wants to see what I'm capable of, huh? Hmmm, that's tricky. Given her reaction, I say there might be a fair chance Kakashi did put her up to this. But why would he do that and not come and watch the show? After all, as far as I can see he's still on that mountain. ... Unless he's using a clone himself? Then again ... I heard ANBU recruits their members out of any rank. I doubt she's here for that though. Should be, but that's their loss. No, this has got to be much simpler. If Kakashi's somehow involved in this ... it's because .. he asked her to be my instructor for the coming month! That's gotta be it, right ?'

The blond pondered on these insights whilst making his way throughout the village. The streets were crowded as always, but on the inner city ninja highway, or the rooftops as some might call it, it was smooth going.

'... Shit!' He landed clean on a chimney and slammed his palm against his forehead protector. 'Fool! You basically told her you were doing speed training when you thanked her for that review. Great going there genius. Okay, okay, no problem. I'm sure we can fix this. I never said how far I was in the training. Calm, relax. Now, let's jot this down.  
She's a jounin, so I'm probably not supposed to win this fight.  
She called us prey. So, she's hunting us. ... Shit!'

Immediately Naruto got down from the rooftops, turned a corner, changed into a local villager and split in 5. It suddenly occurred to him that a hunter who knows his particular habits would be looking for the original, and he certainly looked original right now. So just to try out that theory he sent one clone off in his current outfit, in the direction where the action was playing right now.  
He himself had to go check out something at home.

***

As she looked down, she witnessed a piece of log wrapped up with a multitude of sizzling sealing tags. 'Fuck.'  
She pushed off of the branch and got away just in time for the flames not to consume her, the shock wave however threw her through the foliage in a wild, uncontrolled manner. Managing to grab a branch with her right hand, she made a wide acrobatic swing before crashing to the forest floor. Still woozy from the blast, she didn't see the first kunai coming at her from a very high arc, she only got away because of the second that was coming at her directly from the front. Following that ones path with her eyes, she noticed too late that the one she was dodging was thrown to hit the sealing tag attached to the slower, higher one. When she figured that out the jounin first wanted to dismiss that as a threat since she was already out of the likely range of the explosion that would follow.

When the seal detonated that thought came back and slapped her in the face. It seemed the kid wasn't limited to explosions. Flash bangs required quite some tactical thinking, but if used successfully were just as devastating.  
She silently cursed. She did it again when she heard the kid ask if something like this would be sufficient to run off would be predators. Anko responded by throwing a shuriken at the source of the noise, she grinned when she heard the slightly satisfying sound of metal clashing on metal, signifying she hadn't been of mark, but also that her attack had been blocked.  
That's when she felt the kunai at her back.

"Suppose I do let you 'see' what I'm capable of. What would that gain me?"  
_'Damn, kid is smart. He knows he's loud, so he used the sound of his voice to drown out the lack of his stealth. I gotta stop taking these clones for granted. They're all at least genin level, and there's lots of them. '_  
"Well, first of all, I am an chuunin examiner, so despite whatever you might think, I do still have some say in the matter of any promotion you might make."  
"Well, that's not a bad reason, but there's no reason for you to see everything at this point already, is there?"  
"Only if I was a betting woman, which I just so happen to be. Though I was going to keep that as my third argument," She smiled to herself, hoping to pique his interest. For a fraction of a second she felt the blade at her back losing pressure.  
"Hah, interesting. What would the second one have been?"

As his question ended, so did his view of her. 'Shit, Kawarimi.'  
"I forgot." They heard as twin columns of snakes descended down upon them. "But the last one was that I like to see people struggle against the inevitable."  
A psychotic smile crept up her thin lips as she ran her tongue over them. With a satisfying"poof" she disposed of the last two.  
Then she turned around, snakes retreating in her sleeves and said "What kept you guys?" as she faced the five dozen orange figures that now descended on her position.

***scene break, Naruto's apartment***

Softly his sandals made contact with the wooden flooring of his home. Closing the door behind him, he walked in a relaxed pace to the kitchen table. There he produced the scroll he had just obtained from the village leader. A feeling of pride and appreciation welled up in him. The Hokage himself had taken the effort to write it in front of him. Frankly he still had no idea what the heck it may contain, so he was quite anxious to find out what the old man had granted him.

Hurriedly he undid it of it's sealing and pulled it open in one swift motion. And then he was gone.

**several minutes later**

Once again the door creaked open, the noise was followed by the exact same pattern of footsteps, produced by nearly the same figure. However, instead of just orange, this one was dressed in black pants and a white t-shirt. The only trace left of the distinguishing colour being the thin dual lines running down the legs.  
This Naruto followed the previous one to the same destination, where the scroll still laid upon the well worn surface of the wooden table, sat upon the same chair, in the exact same pose and went to pick the same scroll up.

This was where the similarities stopped however. Instead of placing his left thumb in the middle of the bottom of the paper, where he now noticed a small seal, he drifted a bit further to the left.  
Then he carefully unrolled the paper. Near the top of the page, on the back of the scroll, he found a similar seal.

"Hehe, funny, old man." He muttered to himself, now finally going over the content of the paper.

"Naruto,

there's little that I can say about the specifics of Lightning jutsus without knowing the specifics of the technique you're aiming for.  
I can tell you the basics, though you normally should already know.

Lightning, just like water, flows from one place to the other, following the path of least resistance. Unlike water though, for lightning resistance isn't determined by gravity, but rather by the atomic structure of the material it's passing through.  
For example, your body is a better conductor for electricity then air or paper. That's why the Lightning jutsu on this scroll will only fire off when someone puts his fingers on it, and why it won't destroy the paper.

One more thing Naruto,  
next time you drop by my office, please have the courtesy to do so yourself.

Sarutobi"

"Hmmm, okay, that's good to know but it doesn't really help me with the Chidori. The electricity of it doesn't seem to go anywhere. It's more like a coating or a blend. ... Damn, I should've asked him for some of those chakra nature type papers, or whatever they're called. Anyway, those seals don't look too hard. I can probably copy thi- Aauw!"

He brought his head down to his hands in pain. Damn, Anko was working through his clones in a fast pace now. Still, this felt better then if he had let the copies work through the entire day. The blond reached down his pack for the bottle of aspirin Hinata had given him and crunched down on one.

Anko was starting to look annoyed he noted. In a normal fight he considered that a good sign, in a "friendly spar" with a jounin he wasn't sure the same rule applied. On the bright side, he had make her break a sweat, so he now knew he could hold off a jounin for at least a few minutes. She was probably still holding back, but so were his clones, so that was alright.  
Pondering upon that, he tried making a few copies of the two lightning seals over an apple. By the time he finished the fruit he had gotten the hang of it's workings. It was fairly simple really, but he had never worked with linked seals in that way, nor with Lightning. The shared detonator was something inspiring though, no doubt he'd try and mess with that later.

Going out and locking the door , having his back exposed, he suddenly felt something. A flash of killer intent and then a sudden harm coming his way, fast. The blond dodged left, narrowly avoiding the hail of shuriken. His door wasn't so lucky though. When he turned his head to look at his attacker he saw her standing on his neighbor's rooftop, grinning triumphant.  
"See I knew you could move faster then you were showing."  
"Great." he mumbled as he dusted himelf off.  
"Ooooh, is the little genin mad I found out about his 'secret training'?" she responded, sarcasm dripping of every word.  
"What do you want Anko? Like you saw, I'm kinda busy."  
_'I'm surprised he's still keeping my clone busy. I expected it to dismiss itself 10 minutes ago.'_ the outcast Anbu thought to herself with slight frustration.  
"Oh? Now can't a girl just check up on her favorite guinea pig? She licked her lips in a sensual way with eyes that seemed to scream for either blood or some other bodily fluid.

The young man gulped audibly, but refocused. "Héh. I just thought Hatake put you up to this, since he seems to be too lazy to train me himself; I figured he might think you owe me or something."  
"Hey! I don't owe you jack shit, kid! I-"  
"Hey, hey, hey. I said 'he might think'. But... You know, five minutes ago I would have agreed with you. Then someone came along and got the bright idea to start killing off all my clones. Do you have any idea how much training your little playtime cost me?"  
"What? You've got to be fucking kidding me? If you'd let your clones fight like anything but little girls, you would have made that up by gaining some combat experience."

The blond seemed to consider this for a moment, basically that was what he was already doing, so he had no real counter to the argument. He was getting a load of combat experience as they were speaking. Unlike most of his opponents, Anko wasn't keen on using wide area jutsus. She seemed to really like getting close and personal. A habit his clones had determined to exploit to the fullest.  
Ever since the supposedly real Anko had shown herself to the real him, he had given his copies the permission to use deadly force.  
In other words: the next time explosive tags would be used, they would be set to detonate at point blank.

Despite everything, the clone fight didn't seem near to coming to an end. Determined to get the most experience out of this as possible, the imitations of Naruto for once didn't all rush their opponent. Often their would be one, two or three at most engaged in a melee with the older looking copy, while the rest of the numerous pack kept their distance.

"So ... how did you find out I'm the real one?"  
"Besides the new look? I saw you eating that apple. I figured a guy who makes as many clones as you would have taught them not to eat anything by now."  
"Hehe, you've been there too, huh?"

For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence among the two.  
"So ... what happens now?" the blond asked on a more serious note.  
Anko on her part was already regretting her decision to take the kid on. So far he ad been showing himself a whole lot less fun then she'd somehow imagined. Interesting, but not fun.  
She sighed. "First of all, I'm just gonna say to you what I told your sensei. I'm not going to train you for the chuunin exam."  
"You're not?" Naruto suddenly asked somewhat confused.  
"I'm not."  
"Then what are you doing here?"  
"If I'm going to be training you for a month, it's not going to be for some stupid little test that'll only take a day of your life. It'd be for all those other days when your life might actually be at stake."

***Scene Break***

And so it was that our hero descended further into the depths of the mountain. For a while he had thought his source in town to have been pulling his leg, as the cavern had seemed no more then a lair of one of the bears or other large predators in the area. If the leftover carcasses hadn't been an indication, the pile of feces in the corner surely seemed to be.

Yet the dashing youngster felt in his bones something was off. The scantly clad woman in the village had been right about everything so far. Deciding to trust his source he inspected the cavern further.  
And indeed, some 20 feet straight up a passageway was hidden from view. He had swiftly made his way up, only to find himself in one of the most trap filled hallways he had ever encountered.

Many as they had been though, they had been no match for the skills of the youth who now made, what he was sure to be, his final steps to the bandits headquarters.  
The voices were getting louder, as was the splashing of water and the clinging of coins.  
Silently he prepared himself for a slugfest with the roving scoundrels, but when he looked around the corner he was stunned by a vision few mortal man would have been able to withstand.

Out of the blue-gray stone of the mountain a bath had been carved, no not carved, but the exact word to describe such craftsmanship escaped him when the first piece of milky white skin sprung into view.

The piece, belonging to a shoulder spread out, flowing into a back over which her long blond, wet hair laid draped, and ended in a heavenly shaped buttocks. Her arm moved elegantly over the water, her hand scooping up bits of the clear liquid and threw them at her six companions with a scream of delight.

Droplets splattered over the tanned skin and slowly flowed down the godly curved body of the one called Tsuki. She must have been from the south-western lands beyond the sea, for her color was much darker then the sun would have ever painted her. Her breasts bounced slowly with every step she took and her nippl-  
"Hey old man, what do you think you're doing!"

Said old man didn't even avert his eyes from the source of his inspiration. He had heard that line so many times before. He would deal with the loudmouth swiftly in the usual way. Still, signs that the damage was already done were spreading in the group of bathing women on the other side of the wooden boards.

He continued watching them however, it was a relatively unknown, yet universally common technique amongst women. One that had yet to make it in his books. The current scene now seemed to be begging to contain it. Diverting his attention for a split second he noticed the oncoming footsteps.

"Hey! I sai-"  
In the two seconds the other male used to try and communicate his opinion, Jiraiya had dropped his script and pencil, executed five seals and slammed his left hand on the ground.  
"Quiet him down, will you, Gama?" the older man requested to the toad who was now coming into view.  
"Sure thing Jiraiya." the giant horned toad responded when the smoke was cleared.  
"... Oh ... shit."

It was all the clone could utter before the giant tongue raced its way towards him.  
Quickly it wrapped around his form and then proceeded to lift him off the ground and promptly slam him back down on it, only to reveal he had already performed a replacement-technique.  
The toad's eyes darted left to right and when they found their designated opponent, saw he was holding his hands up in a sign of surrender.

"Ha! Giving up already?"  
"I have no reason to fight you. But now I'm curious, I mean, you're a real talking toad! How does that work?"

_'This kid ... He looks so much like ... No. No, that couldn't be.'_

"What? .. Erhm, well .. I had real good education from master Gamakyouyu."  
"Wow, so you ... you lead an actual life!"  
"Yeah, whenever Jiraiya here doesn't call me away from it that is" the amphibian seemed to joke.  
"So ... this guy can just call you whenever he feels like it?" he pointed at the pervert who was choosing to ignore the two.  
"Hey, I can leave whenever I feel like it too." the horse sized creature seemed offended.  
"Yeah, but what do you get out of it?"  
"I'm still trying to figure that one out myself. Granddad said something along the lines of 'influence in transdimensional affairs', still beats me what he means exactly though."  
"Erhm, ok. That's ... cool, I guess. Say, how do you get along with turtles?"  
"Meh. They're alright, I guess. Too ethical for my part, but it let's you know you can count on them."  
"That's a very important quality indeed. So .. could you teach me how to call on you?"  
"Ain't up to me kid, but if you want I'll see if I can put up a good word for ya. What's your name?"  
"Uzumaki Naruto!"  
_'It is him! I have to inform dad immediately.'_  
"Alright kid, I'll see what I can do. Catch ya later."  
With that the toad vanished in the ever typical white smoke.  
The clone was left staring at the spot where the large amphibian had recently stood to ponder over the small conversation they had had.

When the living technique finished processing the information he noticed the old white haired man was still writing and giggling whilst looking through the peephole.  
"Hey, old pervert. Didn't I ask you to stop that?"  
"Hmmm, you still here?" said old man asked non-chalantly._ 'So much for some inspirati- It's him!'_  
The hermit, who was only now paying actual attention to the complaining party quickly mastered his face before any sign of surprise appeared on it.  
He had been purposely postponing this meeting, hoping to get to see some more of the kid's personality. He just couldn't help doing some extra information gathering on the side. Now he was forced into a direct confrontation.

"For your information, I was gathering vital data for my book."  
"What? You're writing some dirty- Hey that's that smut Hatake is always reading!"  
"Smut? The Make Out Paradise series won me 3 literature awards, is sold in all of the 5 great nations and beyond and has an enormous fanbase. They are all one by one masterpieces, and this one will be the greatest yet!" he flashed his manuscript.  
"Yeah right. ... Wait a second..." the clone suddenly noted the name of the author on the booklet he held to his face. "Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari ... toads ... You're the legendary Jiraiya?"  
"Ha! So you know of the white haired toad summoner, the holy hermit from the mount Myouboku."  
"But ... you're a pervert." the clone pouted.  
"Me? A pervert? Heavens no. I am ... a super pervert!" he exclaimed.  
"You're not supposed to be proud of that, you know."  
"Hahaha! Tell me that again after your balls drop kid." the old man laughed.  
The clone made a brief face of disgust before answering that old men definitely shouldn't talk about dropping balls. Especially not those whose balls are dangling somewhere at knee level.  
This made the long haired man laugh and slap him on the back, sending him to the ground and nearly dispelling the living jutsu.

"You crack me up kid, so tell me, what's your name?"  
"Naruto Uzumaki .. clone number 3." the kid answered after some consideration.  
"You're a shadow clone?"  
"Sure am. Hey, that reminds me. That technique you did with that toad. How does that work?"  
"You mean summoning? Relatively simple, really. It's like a teleportation jutsu, but instead of just bending space you also reach across dimensions and apply it to someone else."  
The clone's right eye brow had lifted itself up somewhat and his jaw had started hanging a bit slack as he processed the information.  
"Hmmm, any tips on where I could get some info on that first subject?"

***scene break***

As Naruto was having his casual conversations with his elders, his clones were rounding things up with Anko's double. Though in this case the term "making their last stand" was probably more applicable. There were about four of them left and it looked like Anko was losing her patience. Although the clones had by now picked up quite a bit of her style, that had only helped them for about two minutes until she shifted gears and started kiling them faster then they could possibly follow.  
She was paying a price for it though, as she struck down the second-to-last bunshin she was panting hard. Looking around to confirm there really was only one left she grinned in satisfaction. Until he slowly got up from his perch and gave her a slow applause.

"What's that for?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, but an unimpressed face.  
"For sticking to it until the very end. I could see you were frustrated and wanted to quickly finish it a good 30 of us ago."  
"What can I say? No matter how much fun it is to kill genins,the same one over and over again gets boring after a while."  
"Sorry to hear that. We'll try our best to keep you better entertained in the future. Anyway, I just wanted to wish you better luck next time."  
"What?"  
"Goodbye Anko" the clone smiled as he held his hands in a tiger-seal.

A moment later the real Mitarashi Anko suddenly remembered how she died in a sea of fire. The sounds of the explosion took about 3 seconds later to arrive.

"Did you just blew up 5 acres of forest, just to get rid of my clone?"  
"Ah, so it worked. I wasn't sure if it would be enough" the genin smiled.  
I was at that moment the jounin realized why no one had let her play with explosive notes until she turned sixteen and even then it was only when they were in enemy territory.

"So," he asked, ready to return to Gai, "are we done here?"  
The woman said nothing in return but just tossed him an angry look. A few seconds later however she sighed and said "sure".  
As the blonde grinned and turned however he heard she added "Not!" to it, right before the grabbed him by the neck and electrocuted him.

Jirayia was in the midst of negotiating with a shadow clone untill the latter suddenly fell to his knees while clutching his head.  
"Wohoo, you okay there little buddy?" the old man knelt down beside him.  
"Fine" the clone muttered as he got up again. "Just a ... connection problem."  
The sage decided not to question him further but the clone did suddenly seemed a lot more ... interesting then before. He seemed a bit disoriented and nervous even.  
"Look, old man, it's been a pleasure, but I really gotta go" he said as he started running to the other side of the garden. "But if you could stay here for like 10 minutes, I'm sure one of us will be back to continue our chat."

Jiraya waited until the clone was out of sight, took out his telescope and weighed his options for a minute. In the end he sighed, tucked the apparatus back in his vest and went after the aspiring chuunin candidate's clone.

Meanwhile Anko was moving fast over the city rooftops, her prey slung over her shoulder. It would be quite a while before he regained consciousness, but she wanted to reach her destination without having to answer the question why she was carrying around a knocked out genin. So far it had been smooth sailing, except perhaps for that cat. When she rounded that corner above the tailor she suddenly got a face full of stray feline. The animal must have been as surprised and angry as she was. She shrugged, discarded the memory and continued her run to her hideout, the cat however had found it's quarry and was playing with the seemingly lifeless body. Gettinng frustrated of the lack of reaction it decided to bite it's nose.

"Aaaauw! That hurt damnit!" Naruto yelled, more out of surprise then pain.  
Meanwhile the toadsage who had been following from a distance had puzzled the pieces together. The kid's mastery of clones was impressive. Not only did they stay around when he lost conciousness, but they seemed to know exactly where their creator was located. Either that, or there was some other trick going on that escaped the old hermit for the moment.

As the grey haired legend looked down upon the blond rookie from dark corner of Konoha's rooftops, a dark haired woman made her escape with another blond body under her arms.  
After a few minutes she seemed to have reached her destination: an old neglected cabin in the forest surrounding the giant walls of Hidden Leaf village.  
Wasting no time she softly kicked open the door, entered and closed it again before throwing her prey in an old wooden chair and securing him tight.

The captured clone tried listening as good as he could to what was happening in these new surroundings. He could make out the clinging and clanging of metal on metal, the abrupt ending of each pinging sound indicated it was either attached to a piece of wood, or wrapped in a cloth or other damping material. The hardest part so far was not making any frowning faces when trying to figure out what was going on around him. Some more footsteps and the swishing of liquid in a container, the pop of a cork, the smell of sake and a satisfying "Aahh"-sound.  
Then he braced himself as he felt more then heard the air moving around him right before he got "awoken" by a sharp slap on his face.

"Wakey, wakey hamster boy!"  
"Ugh, " he said as he finally opened his eyes, "did I pass out watching women's aerobics excercises again?"  
This earned him a backhand from the special Jounin.  
"Hmm, that could be either a yes or a no." he casually said as he spat some blood mixed spit on the floorboards.  
A fullforce punch to the jaw was coming on now. He turned his face with the blow as fast as he could to minimize the impact and was pleased to learn he was still sitting in the chair instead of being trapped back again in the brain of his master.  
"Finished now?" the dark haired captain asked with a smirk of satisfaction.  
The blond was about to open his mouth, but suddenly thought the better of it.  
"Good, then let's get down to business." she stated as she sat herself in the chair across from him and took another gulp of sake.

"As you figured out, your sensei asked me to take care of your training this month. What he failed to menion was the extend of your abilities. Now, like I stated before, if I'm training you, it won't be for some stupid little tournament. Unlike some unnamed, perverted grey haired cyclops, I don't like wasting my time. So ... if you have any other hidden talents, now would be the time to mention those."  
She looked at him expectantly. He pouted his lips and rolled his eyes back and to the left, pondering a second before answerring: "I learned to cook a mean marinated chicken last week and know Ichiraku's prices by heart."  
"Good, but everyone knew that last part already" she said unimpressed. "I was talking more among the lines of this:" she said as the pulled a scroll out from under her jacket. "Naruto shows signs of greatly accelerated healing, blablabla great learning drive, blablabla, is at risk of identifying too much with his opponents."  
"See, now that's great stuff right there. Shows you are a great big softy with a talent that's just perfect for the little game we're playing right now."  
"And what game is that?" he could help but asking.  
"Interrogation." she grinned then in one swift movement took her sake cup, smashed it on the table and sliced his left hand open with the broken bottom of the ceramic container.  
The captured genin grinded his teeth, trying to deny her the satisfaction of a scream.  
"Now, let's try this again. What would you say is your best area of expertise?"

'Fuuuck. Damn that hurt. Least of my worries though. Surprised I'm still around really. The wound must be only superficial, still should have returned me if you ask me. Whatever, let's see how long we can keep it up. She's gonna be pissed when she finds out what I am.'

"Auw! That hurt you crazy bitch! What the fuck's th-" the clone suddenly held his tongue when he saw the woman absentmindedly pick up another shard of the broken cup.  
"You were saying?" she said uncaringly and licked a remaining drop of sake from the piece.  
"Area of expertise eh? That's easy I'm renowned throughout the village for my good fashion sense. I can't believe you didn't notic-Auw!" he cried out once more as the small shard she had been holding was suddenly lodged in his neck.  
"So you think you're being funny eh? We'll see who'll be laughing by the end of the evening. Now, how long have you been trainning with Gai's little book?"  
"You mean 'Superspeed training for real men'? It's my bible, I've been living and breathing that book since I could read." He braced himself, but the sudden shock of pain never came.  
"Couldn't have been that long then" she just mocked him this time. "  
"Still longer ago then when you learned to dress" he shot right back at her.  
That's when she broke his finger.

***scene break***

It hadn't taken long for him to gain somewhat of a reputation in the village hidden in the leafs. If it hadn't been for that barely controlled deadstare he used when visiting the local shops, it would have been his crazy mutterings to his 'mother'. Whatever the case, the Sand trio had found themselves in front of more closed shops then they had imagined Konoha even had.

/ I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I'M GOING WITH HERE /

***scene break ****

It hadn't taken Naruto long to form up a plan for his new situation. His "Anko-clone" no doubt needed backup. Three clones were already heading to her position. Meanwhile he couldn't ignore the living legend that was residing at the bath house. He thought the last clone had left a good impression on the man, plus that 'summoning technique' or whatever it was sounded awesome. He couldn't ignore the possibility to learn ... well, anything from that man. At the same time, he couldn't just ignore Maito Gai. The man had shown himself willing to share this time with him, just on the priniple that his prize student had unwillingly altered the trainning tactics of his own rival. Not to forget that he was teaching him Tai Jutsu, the one thing where he would best be present for himself.

So it was decided, Anko would be getting her just desserts from his clones, while another avatar of his went back to the bathhouse and Naruto himself would rejoin the Green Beasts of Konoha himself.  
Upon his return to the dojo, he wasn't surprised not to see multitudes of himself practicing kata's, but a small group of academy students instead. Lee and Gai were walking through the dojo correcting the students ' stances and giving them pointers. When he saw Gai noticing him, he immediately presented himself before the man and apologised profusely for his unothodox absence.

"Ha, that's quite alright Naruto-kun. This actually reminds me of my sunday classes, only that the students all show more promise and discipline. Perhaps even a bit too much, if you want this henge to be be credible."  
"Hai, I will try to encorporate more realism in the future Gai-sensei." he bowed.  
Just as he was turning around to join the class, Gai had to ask him:  
"Incidentally Naruto, who was it that 'so desperately sought your attention'?"  
"Oh that. No one special, just Anko needing some attention." the genin discarded.  
"Anko ... You don't mean Mitarashi Anko?" the special jounin asked, suddenly becoming slightly paler.  
"Oh you know her. Well, I mean, of course you do. You're both jounin. And she reviewed your book. So, yeah, her."  
"Did she tell you what she wanted?"  
"Oh yeah, nothing special you know. Thank me for what I did in the Forest of Death, see what I'm capable of, grab a dango. That sort of things."  
"Are you sure we're talking about the same Anko?" the greenclad jounin asked with a slight frown. The blond assured him he was in a way that showed he'd rather not spend anymore words on the subject. Gai didn't show it, but he really didn't care much for his casual attitude. He cracked a smile, thinking of the dangers Naruto was putting himself into by discarding the ... "very-special-jounin" so easily. He kept his musings to himself however and continued his instructions.

Clone number four cursed his luck. Upon returning to the bath house he found no trace of the newly acquanted sanin. Even the peepinghole the old man had been using was missing in the wooden fence. He poked the place where he knew it should have been, but found nothing but solid wood. He pondered that detail for a moment, but decided that it was not worth his time. A minute or so he considered where a self proclaimed super-pervert and legendary warrior would keep himself entertained or otherwise occupied with in the village.

_'Let's see ... I'm the biggest badass in town, love the ladies and the ladies love me. Nobody messes with me and I don't care what the hell you might think of me. Now shut up, pour my drink and tell me where the whores are these days.'_  
'... Wow, where did that come from' the clone thought to himself, but decided not to look inspiration in the mouth. The red light district wasn't too far from here, he hadn't ever really visited it, but like anyone in town, he knew where it was and what was supposed to go one there.  
He could hardly go there looking like himself though. Thinking about that, he wondered if any ninja in town ever went there looking like himself. Then again, he _was_ thinking about men who had fought in wars and had shed more blood then he cared to think of. Still, the pretense of decency was high in Konoha and the efficiency of his Sexy no jutsu was a testament to the prudishnes of the city. Thinking about it, there was only one man he could imaging showing his face in that neighbourhood. If that's what you could call it.

"Hmm, I don't know why Kakashi stated any encreased healing in your profile, you seem to be bleeding just like any other pig if you ask me. And as for that drive to learn ... unles you want to learn new ways to bleed on carpets, I'm not very impressed." a slightly dissapointed looking Anko stated to the bloody mess that was Naruto.  
"Damn", the boy stated between ragged breaths, "so you found out about my deal with the cleaning company already eh?" he grinned.  
"Courtesy of the piss stains on your mattress." she shot right back at him.  
"Remind me to switch to the competion when this is over." he retorted without missing a beat.

Meanwhile, in the red light district of town, the figure of a grey haired jounin reading an orange book was strolling carefree through the streets. So far he had visited 3 establishments and was now slightly dissapointed that neither place's madams had seen an old grey haired lecher with a giant scroll on his back and a headband that said "Oil" on. Or that none knew his teacher by name for that matter. It would be worth gold if he were to find out like this that Kakashi frequented this neighbourhood. On the other hand, he wasn't even sure the pervert would even care if he or the rest of the village knew for that matter.  
Fourth time was the charm however it seemed as he asked once more at a place called Daddy's Golden Palace of Happiness. The proprietor ofcourse knew nothing about such a man, but the gray haired clone hadn't missed the giant wooden sandals that were in the open closet by the door. Not many people still wore those, and even less of them had such giant feet. He thanked the madam for her cooperation, left and jumped to the terrace on rounding the corner.  
It wasn't long before he heard the man's voice, giggling like he had done at the bathhouse. He imagined sneaking in with Sexy no Jutsu, but discarded that thought as he wasn't fond of the, no doubt hilarious, or possibly traumatic, scenarios that could lead to.  
Before he could even think of a plan however something sticky shot out, grabbed him and dragged him inside through the window.  
"That's a pretty good Henge you got there kid, however unless you can match your target's chakra signature, it's not gonna work on me" he heard as something long and sharp got pressed against throat.  
Looking towards the sound of the voice, he found it's owner lying in the most luxurious and fluffy bed he'd ever seen, surrounding the old man were 3 scantily clad ladies, feeding him grapes, filling his wine cup and washing his feet. Meanwhile the clone himself saw he was being held in place by a long tongue belonging to a familiar looking bipedal toad. Focussing on making smalltalk was about all he could do no to be utterly disgusted.  
"Though I must say," he continued between chewing, "your choice of disguise is more then fitting."  
"Oh I wouldn't dream of using this on you Jiraya-sama. But I wouldn't want to damage this place's reputation by making people think they let in minors."  
"Trust me kid, if people thought that, this place would only attract more costumers."  
There was an uncomfortable silence as both contemplated the despicable nature of mankind.  
"So what do want boy, as you can see, I'm kinda in the middle of something." the old man complained as he stole a kiss from one of the girls.  
"Well, if I recall, we were kinda in the middle of something ourselves less then an hour ago, before we had to leave on an urgent search and rescue mission." the still transformed eavesdropper said in the jounin's typical apolegetic tone.  
"Uzumaki?" the elder nin suddenly exclaimed after nearly choking on a grape, suddenly he looked drastically less at ease, his eyes darting across the room. "I thought Anko would have taken care of you by now." Until now he had just thought the invader of his privacy to be any run of the mill genin, it wasn't rare for the younger generation to bother him with variable requests, though most knew better then to bother him here.  
"Nah, but it's nice to know you care." he said sarcastically. "Anyway," he said, getting back on track, "I believe you were just going to show us the details of a teleportation jutsu?"  
"Actually, it was more like you were begging for the guidance and wisdom of one of Konoha's most succesfull and brilliant ninjas."  
"Really now? It's hard to really know these things without my doppelganger dismissing himself. So, were we any convincing?"  
"Hardly, but don't let that stop you from trying again." he said, sitting back, seemingly anticipating a show of the genin.  
The clone however didn't seem very willing to entertain the old pervert and instead turned to the toad who by now had stopped holding him at knifepoint. "So Gama, how's my application to become a summoner going?"  
"It's being processed." the amphibean told him, apparently less then pleased that he was expected to speak while restraining someone with his tongue.  
"Hmmm if the administration you guys have is any like ours here, I'll probably be looking like him before it gets rejected for not having enough stamps on the form."  
"It amuses me how you humans interact", the toad answerred, releasing his grip on the boy, "I thought you were supposed to kiss his ass now, not insult it."  
"Maybe, but that would leave little to do for his current company, don't you think?" he smiled and winked at the ladies in question, hoping to convey the message that no ill will was intended with that comment. Surprisingly two of them covered their mouths and giggled at him.  
"Anyway, it is hard to suck up to a man who I hardly know anything about, save some third hand stories and the fact that I know he writes porn, first met him in a bathhouse while he was spying on the women and now found him in a house of questionable services." the grey haired shadow of the genin stated while trying to fidget with the giant toad's odd looking knife.  
"So there must some other way we can come to an agreement? How about a trade?"  
"I'm a sanin kid, you honestly think I'd be interested in any of those four academy jutsu's you have to offer?"  
"Oh ye of little faith..." the clone sighted. "How about this then: I'm sure you paid a pretty penny to have these beautifull ladies and this luxurious room all to yourself. It would be a shame if something would prevend you from enjoying it, no?"

This prospect seemed to suddenly make the gray legend less sure of his superior position.  
For a second he frowned at the kid then said "Tomorow, 3 o'clock, behind the place we first met. Now get out of here kid."  
The clone smiled in victory. "I knew you'd see things my way eventually Jiraya-sama." He bowed and made to leave, but had already ceased to be before he had reached the window.  
"Cocky little basterd" the older man mumbled quietly to himself before eagerly throwing himself on the ladies with and enthousiastic "Now where were we?"

"Now tell me again why your tai jutsu is still so bad after training with both a Hyuuga and an Uchiha for so long." she said after putting down the salt shaker.  
"I told you" he winced, talking between his grinding his teeth, "the Uchiha throws me around like a ragdoll, I black out before I get the chance to learn anything."  
"Hence your private training with the Hyuuga" she half asked half stated, fully rolling her eyes. It was only the 6th time they went over this.  
"Yes!" he screamed, hoping the psychotic woman would finally get it and stop her madness. "But she doesn't take me seriously. She just blocks and dodges, even refusing to take advantage of any real or fake openings and just knocks me out when she's had enough."  
"Don't lie to me Naruto," she said in her most sencere sounding voice, "I've seen the video of your fight with Kiba and his pet. In the end you somehow took both out in seconds. That must have taken some skill?" she now politely seemed to ask.  
"No really, he was about to finish me off with some special move until it backfired on him. Honestly, it was an accident."  
At this moment a vein seemed to nearly pop on Anko's forehead. She reached for his shirt and pulled him close so his neck was resting on a kunai that had come out of nowhere.  
"Listen kid, you're going to tell me exactly how you beat that Inuzuka brat," he voice suddenly switched to a happy go lucky sarcasm "or I'm gonna make sure you won't be able to train this month at all." She pushed him backwards and circled around him, keeping the sharp piece of metal near his neck as she turned, then lowering it to his left arm.  
"See all I have to do is, slip just a bit at the right place and accidently cut right through your muscle. You'll be lucky if you'll be able to use your arm at all before the exam."  
Breathing heavy for a few moments, the clone sighed in defeat. "That's okay Anko. I'm just about at my limit anyway." This made the jounin raise a brow in surprise. "It was ... well, not really fun, but something alright. Same time at my place tomorrow?"  
"You're a cl-"  
"One more thing: you owe me a new door." *poof*  
"Goddamnit! GODDAMNIT! UZUMAKIIIII!"

At Gai's dojo the real Naruto suddenly broke his stance and fell to his knees, clutching his head in pain as the rest of his clones nearly did the same, but vanished in smoke before gravity could pull them down completely.  
"Naruto-kun, what's wrong?" a concerned Gai asked as he kneeled down to the boy.  
"Anko..." the boy uttered, gasping.  
"What?" the man asked with a look of confusion.  
"She, she ... she's," he muttered more to himself then anyone else,"she's insane!"  
"Ah, yes," the man answered, getting up and dusting his hands, "that she is." A tiny smile formed on his face.  
"Take the rest of the day off to process that."  
"H-hai" he hesitantly nodded, while checking his hands for blood. She had really done a number on that clone and apparently the clone had done the same to him by refusing to disappear for so long. He'd had a general idea of what was going before, but nothing like the intense memory he had to live through when a clone expired.

Naruto had a hard time processing on how he should feel about the whole Anko experience. On one hand he clearly won since he managed to evade the jounin the entire day, on the other hand she did make him live through the entire experience. Maybe more important though, how did the clone live through the torture that was inflicted upon him? Multiple possibilities crossed his mind. His personal amount of chakra and his control had grown sufficiently to make multiple clones that could last the entire day, so it could just be the amount of chakra put into the technique itself that had made him more resilient.  
Then again, he had also been reading up on anatomy. First he only did it to perfect his bird-clones, then his clones had just kept on reading on the subject, both the fight with Zabuza and his training with Hinata had opened his eyes on the importance of his knowledge of the human body. Perhaps knowing what went on underneath the skin made his clones more functional. Then there was the possibility that he had just minimized the damage from the punches he got and that all her cuts had been superficial. At this point, it was impossible to be sure, time would tell what was the case no doubt.

Time, now that was a more important concern. How on earth was he going to manage to learn from 3 teachers at once. Training his body would have to be done by himself, learning jutsu's from Jiraiya could probably be done by a clone. Then there was Anko ...  
Deciding what to do with her would be so much easier if he had any idea what the devilish woman was planing.  
'Let's see, what do I know about her so far? She has a fairly unique tai jutsu style and the few ninjutsu techniques I've seen her perform so far were all based on snakes ... I've only seen one other person use snakes in combat, but I can hardly imagine her teaching me to stretch my neck 20 feet long. I wonder what the story between those two is anyway, she seems to really hate that guy.' He let his mind wonder on that for a moment as he made his way to Ichiraku's.

"Aah, Naruto! How're the preparations going?" the old man asked with a welcoming voice.  
"Some are fairing better then others" he mumbled absent mindedly as his eyes flashed over the menu.  
"Oh, that doesn't sound good." The concern in the man's voice was obvious. A frown was forming on his face when he saw the kid read the menu. Naruto knew every dish on there by heart, something had to really be wrong. "Perhaps I should take my sponsorship to another finalist ey? I hear that Hyuuga girl is pretty good."  
"Yeah, she's okay, but no- Hey!" he suddenly slammed the menu on the bar as he realized what he was saying. "You are the devil himself, you know that Ichira. Taking advantage of a confused young customer."  
"Ofcourse I know that ya brat. Now, how about a nice steaming bowl of beef ramen? Only 1 half of your soul today." He waved a bowl that was ready to go under the blond's nose and offered him the most devilish smile.  
"Erhm ... I think I'll stick to the shrimp today." the young genin gulped.  
"Suit yourself" the old man shrugged as he slid the bowl over the counter to the man who originally ordered it. "So tell me kid, what's bothering you?"  
"Besides the countless existantial questions that float around my head courtesy of my clones, not to mention the mental effects of physical trauma? Tell me what you know about Mitarashi Anko."

There wasn't much his old friend could tell about the psychotic woman. Besides the fact that she was considered violently insane by the few chuunin clients who had mentioned her name during lunchbreaks. Apparently Ichira initialy hadn't the faintest clue that the scantly clad, round breasted and foul mouthed woman Naruto had sent to his stall was the same jounin that was the cause of numerous people's nightmares. To him she seemed no more excentric then most jounin around the village. Besides that, the only somewhat useful information he had gotten from the man was the fact that she liked dango. He wasn't sure how this would help him, but he'd take any info he could get.

Somehow he'd get his revenge on the woman, special-jounin who scares the pants of other jounin or not, she'd get what's coming to her sooner or later. But now wasn't the time to think of vengeance. He still had an A-level assassination technique to master in less then a month, not to mention find a way to fight a long-range wind user and look good while doing it.

Lightning so far had been a whole deal harder to master then the fire techniques he'd been playing with so far. First of all since there was no handy book that could help him get through the basics. The only source of information on any sort of electric techniques he had found so far seemed to be a book on electrical engineering he'd found in the civilian section. At least it had stopped him from trying to create sparks between his fingers. The 40.000 Volts that would require per inch seemed a bit much to begin with. So he had added something different to his training. The small lightbulb from his fridge would do the trick for now.  
He just hoped he was right about this theory, since he found himself looking pretty stupid as he looked around the room at his ten other bodies that seemed to be grunting and shouting in frustration at the little glass and metal object in their hands.

Morning once again came hours too soon for the blond, but at least this time he didn't start talking complete nonsense as the dynamic teacher-student duo knocked on his door. Another activated seal on his weighset and another extra lap around the village prevented him from seeing much progress concerning his speed, but Gai assured him that he was right on shedule and that he should have no problem convincing the judges of his burning desire to join the chuunin ranks. Until noon the Mighty Green Beast had him drilling against the wooden man, at noon however he once again left the two to their own fate, except for a small group of clones that were disguised as academy students and a variety of civilians.  
Just in time for some minor preparations before he had to meet up with the crazy psycho snake woman.

"Uzumaki." she greeted him in a manner that made it clear she wasn't too happy to see him.  
"Mitarashi." It was obvious he shared the feeling.  
"Is it really you this time?"  
"Last time you saw the real me, or thought so anyway, you knocked me out, tied me up and tortured me for hours on end. So what do you think?"  
She made and embarrased smile and scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, maybe I went a little overboard for a first training session. Sorry about that."  
"You have no idea how sorry you really are. But don't worry, you will. Soon."  
"Oh, is that a promise?" she seemed to perk up in a much too happy manner.  
"Believe it. Now let's quit the small talk and tell me what you want to do today."  
"First you tell me how you made your clone that resilient to damage."  
"I thought you were supposed to be the teacher here" the kid grinned.  
The female assassin didn't even dignify his remark with an answer. Instead she chose to slide aside her jacket, revealing her kunai holster, leaving her right hand hovering right above the small collection of weapons. Naruto didn't bat an eye and continued eyeing her with his arms crossed.  
Anko had a considering look, but then let out a dissapointed sigh "Aah, this is no fun, clones just don't make any of those satisfying sounds when you hit them."  
"Focus Anko, you're supposed to be one of Leaf's finest ninjas. I'm not gonna have you waste this training oppurtunity just because you happen to be insane."  
"What?" the anbu woman cried out, sounding offended and surprised as if no one ever called her that before.  
"You heard me." the Naruto in front of her said without getting the frown from his face.

Then suddenly Anko was right in front of him, lifting him up by his collar. "You think that just because you got scratched a bit, spit at and insulted for a few hours on end that I'M the insane one? You have no idea of the shit I went through when I was your age. There was no such thing as a chuunin examination, no one month prep time, no referees that stepped in if you were about to get your ass killed. You either made it through the day alive or burried, if there was even anything left of you to put in the ground. You think there's even a single jounin worth his salt in the Leaf that hasn't gotten scarred mentally of physically? Your own sensei purposely hasn't gotten laid since the end of the war. Maito Gai has gone over the edge so far he's now in some parralel universe. You honestly think that's tobacco in Asuma's smokes? Yet I'm the crazy one? I'm the only one who still remembers what it means to be a ninja." she screamed at him with all the frustration that was pent up in her then tossed him to the ground.  
Naruto's eyes had gone wide at this outburst of unveilings. He truly felt for this woman. "Anko. I-"  
"Say you feel sorry for me and I'll cut your fucking balls off and crush them underfoot."  
"Okay then, but that still doesn't change the fact that you're dead."  
"What!" her eyes went wide and she threw open her jacket. Two sealing tags were sticking to the inside and suddenly started fizzing. Without a moment's hesitation she threw off her trenchcoat and jumped off the third story balcony. Upon landing her eyes immediately went upward expecting to see the fireworks, instead however she was greeted with a cloud of towering smoke that was violently bursting from the little appartment complex.

"That little b-"  
"You didn't really expect me to blow up my own appartment just to end up getting you out of that trenchcoat, did you?" a blond figure leaning against a nearby wall said as he tossed her back her jacket.  
"There are people who'd go to more trouble then that just to get a look at these puppies." she grinned and jiggled her barely covered breasts a few times.  
"Don't remind me. I've got a meeting with one of them later." a sweatdropping Naruto who painstakingly tried to avert his gaze mumbled.  
"Don't you know it's rude not to stare at a girl that you just helped undress?"  
"Wha-Oouw!" he was rewarded by the blunt ring of a kunai violently hitting his headband, knocking him over.  
"Hmmm, so I guess you are the real one." she muttered as she crossed the distance between them and stood over him, once again wearing her coat. "Though with you, maybe I should better make sure", she said as she ran her tongue over a freshly produced blade.

"So what was the meaning of getting me out of my coat?" she asked as the two of them finally entered a training ground bordering on area 44.  
"I wanted to see if you were going to slip out of your skin."  
"Is that supposed to be a snake joke?" she asked with eyes that dared him to say yes.  
"No joke, just trying to figure something out." the blonde said, ignoring her expression.  
"Like what?" she now asked, the look on her face not improving.  
"The reason why a seasoned veteran would rather destroy any potential allies than utilize them to take out a highly dangerous threat. Why you have such a similar fighting style and how far it goes. But mostly what could be used without a summoning contract."  
"Ooooh, poor little Naruto-kuns. So many question and you want to figure them all out with just two smoke seal tags." she mocked him and rubbed her knuckles on his head.  
"And then you just took of your coat instead..." he seemed to mope grudgingly.  
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy kid. You'd best remember that."  
"Then how do you form strategies and use them to assure victory."  
"By being good enough to survive first contact."

Naruto decided not to question the woman for a while. So far, his initial thoughts about Anko still seemed to be right on the money: a reckless, ruthless force of nature and a looney one at that. He decided to change the subject.  
"So, what's the plan for today teach?"  
"Easy really, getting rid of the ones that weren't good enough to do so" she merrily stated as started walking in the direction of the fenced off forest, twirling a key around her fingers.  
"You ... want me to ..." the young man swallowed hard at the thought.  
"Help dispose of the corpses that are still rotting somewhere in the forest, yes. Is that a problem?"  
For a moment Naruto was back on that cursed bridge in Wave. A lot of that mission had turned into a blur not soon after, but now he was once again carrying the body of a young figure with a gaping hole in it's chest. He wanted to put Haku's remains gently down the freshly dug grave but ended up unceremoniously dropping it in the earth.  
"No. No, I can do it."

Anko saw the sudden determination on his face and raised an eyebrow.  
"Funny, I didn't think you'd popped your berry already."  
"My what?"  
"Your berry. You know, your Body-Cherry."  
"Uh? ... Oh! No, I ... I just ... How did you put it again ... Identified too much with an opponent." he answerred with remorse clearly ringing in his voice. It was as if he was dishonouring the memory of Haku by speaking so lightly of his death.  
"You remembered. Good. Cause that's what today's lesson is all about. Now come along."

It wasn't long before the two of them were standing a few feet away from the corpses of 2 young boys from Lightning Village laying in a small trench. One was lying face down in the mud, kunai still firmly clutched in his hand, the cause of death not immediately visible. The other had his throat slid, his hands caked with his own dried up sight of it all was making Naruto damn near lose his lunch, not to mention the unbearable stench that was eminating from the bodies.

"Try breathing through your mouth" Anko, who had noticed his unease, said.  
"So, what now?" the genin asked, trying hard not to add to the stench.  
"Normally we'd just bag 'em and tag'em. This is just a formality to send the bodies back to their village, but not before our own specialists have a look at them. Officially the bodies are just sent to the corroner to be cleaned before we send them back, but the truth is we check for any possible body modifications, seals, all that stuff."  
"'Normally' ?" the blond couldn't help but notice how she started that sentence.  
"You didn't think we were here just to clean up the mess you genins made, right?"  
Naruto was about to run his mouth on his lack of responsibility for this mess, but then remembered they weren't talking about some toys littering the bedroom.  
"What can you tell me about what happened here?"  
"Erhm ... some other team killed them?"

This was met with a slap to the back of his head.  
"What team, dumbass? What nation? Causes of death. Why are there only two of them? What attack pattern did they use? Who started the fight?"  
"I don't know. I was at lots of places when it happened, but not here."  
Anko pinched the bridge of her nose in despair. "I'd like to think so, that would have ruined this entire excercise. Now what can you deduct from the stuff that's laying around?"  
"Oh" the kid said with a sliver of renewed hope in his voice, only to get bummed out again half a minute later when he came to the conclusion that he still had no idea what he was doing.

"For god's sake, didn't Kakashi teach you anything?" Anko sighed as she sat herself on a small boulder.  
"No, no he hasn't. That's what I've been saying to everyone for months now! Jezus."  
"What?" Anko once again took out the file she had on Naruto and desperately started looking through it. "Then how did you even survive that A-rank mission?"  
"Oh, that's right, sorry, he did teach us one thing. Here, I'll show you" with that he jumped against a nearby tree and and stuck against it's stem with chakra. "And this concludes all of my lessons from the great copy-ninja Kakashi."  
Anko looked at the frowning young man that was standing on the tree a few foot away from her, excused herself and calmly walked behind a thicker forest-giant before violently slamming her head against it several times while simultaneously cursing the gray haired cyclops.

"Okay, sorry for that. All better now" she returned with the most innocent and happy looking face she could muster. "So, all this time you've been winging it with basic academy skills eh?"  
"Pretty much." the blond answered flatly.  
"That's ... good. Impressive even." she said with her eyes still closed and the most fake smile plastered all over her face.  
"Impressive that I'm still alive and in one piece you mean?"  
"What else could it mean kid?" her mask of blissful innocence rapidly cracking.  
"An impressive display of laziness on my instructor's part?"  
"Or lack of initiative on yours."  
"Whatever. So, what's the difference if you're looking at a blank slate here or not anyway?"  
"Blank slates are easy, but boring, reworking a painted canvas however means you get to sprinkle around a healthy dose of turpentine and redo all the work, without all the beginner's errors."  
"Perfection through destruction eh? Guess I should have expected that from you."  
"Better then the destruction because of imperfection. So whadaya say kid? Ready to lay your cards on the table?"

For a second both blabbermouths just stared at eachother in silence. One looking expectantly, the other weighing the trustworthiness of the other. Until finally the blond spoke: "Nah."  
Anko couldn't say she hadn't been expecting exactly that answer. She would have said the exact same thing, but would have probably added some extra insults. She really started to dislike Kakashi for this favor.  
"Whatever, your loss kid. Now I just have to teach you as if you were some brat fresh out of the academy."  
"Yeah yeah, now tell me how these guys kicked it and who'dunnit." the blond said non-chalantly while picking his nose.  
"Oh no, I still have to hear what your pea-brain came up with."  
"I dunno, attacked from behind by some girl and took a kunai to the throat?"  
"What makes you think it was a girl?"  
"Well, judging by the footprints, either is was a girl, or a guy with really small feet."  
"Yatta! You get one gold star!" she exclaimed as she pulled one from her vest and stuck it to his forehead.  
Naruto was dumbstruck by the childish gesture and after peeling the sticker of his head simply finally muttered "I hope this is not gonna become a habit..."

"Now, what village where the victors from?"  
"Well, it couldn't have been sound, that bitch only carried those senbons. Grass never even made it to the gates or had no women on their squad, same as Mist, and Sand ... from what I heard they wouldn't have left much to clean up behind. Stone didn't send any teams that I know of so ... it was one of ours ?"  
"I'm gonna run out of stars soon at this rate" she said after slapping another one on his headband.  
"I already can't wait for that to happen" the blond grumbled as he scratched it off.  
"Now, can you tell me what team it was?"  
"Well, I only know the rest of the rookies, plus Gai's team, so if I had to guess it would be Asuma's. Tenten is obviously a long range type and Hinata generally doesn't use kunai."  
'Not to mention I can't imagine her actually killing someone, certainly not like this.'

"Hey, quit your daydreaming hamster-boy! You're not done yet" the Anbu captain yelled at him. "Now tell me how all this shit went down, not to mention where number three of these bastards is."  
"I don't fucking know. Shikamaru probably caught them in his Kagemane and Shouji rolled over them or something."  
" 'Or something' won't do on your intel report. Assumptions only serve to get people killed."  
"Hey throw me a bone or something will you. I'm not even sure their other member was still alive when they got here."  
The words had barely even left his mouth before he got hit in the face with a scroll. At the first moment, right before it smacked him in the mouth that was, he thought the womand had actually thrown a real human bone at him. So for a second he felt really icky and disgusted.

"Get yer act together brat. I thought you asked me for a hint."  
Opening the scroll he saw it was the composition of the, now dead, Lighting team laying before him.  
"Their last teammate was a girl?"  
"Surprised?"  
"I guess I should have seen it coming" he said as he suddenly started walking towards the second victim. Suddenly the cause of death seemed more clear. Massive blunt trauma over the entire body. Definately a trademark of people unlucky enough to get on the bad side of an Akamishi. "They were cutting it real close" he seemed to mumble more then anything.  
"Found something?" Anko asked in a tone that indicated she already knew the answer.  
"Some new respect for Ino and Choji... and the missing teammate" the blonde answerred as he moved aside one lightning-nin and revealed the body of another one hiding underneath.  
"Good, now tell me what you think happened."

_"Are you sure" Shikamaru signaled to Ino as they waited for Choji to settle into position.  
"Shut up and just watch my back coward"she signed back with a face that wouldn't be argued with. Seconds later she unleashed her jutsu on the nin watching the enemy team's back. In a heartbeat's time she gained control over her body and closed the distance with the one they knew was carrying the scroll they needed. Her kunai quickly found his throat while her free hand grabbed and tossed their target behind she could make another move though number three had one hand on her neck and another around his own weapon. Before he could strike though he found his body would no longer move. The last thing he saw was his teammate's body going limp while still in his hand, while the sound of something heavy was quickly closing in behind him._

"Yup, that's pretty much it. Basic Ino-Shika-Cho combo really, nothing too hard to figure out."  
"Then why set me up on the wrong track?"  
"I didn't. You drew the right conclusions, you just got there wrong."  
This gave the blonde some pause before answerring "Don't you start with that "Underneath the underneath"-crap too."  
"Hey it's not my fault you're too dull to even scratch the surface" she shrugged.  
"I only had problems concentrating because you were bouncing around your tits again" he shot back nonchalantly, figuring she was trying to provoke him. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction and neither would he give her the chance to retaliate as he immediately asked her what was next when she opened her mouth.

"Come one, it's ten past three already. What's keeping that pervert?" our favorite genin grumbled as he waited behind Law's Hot Water Spring Palace.  
As if on cue he heard some childish giggling from above him. Looking up the nearby tree he rolled his eyes as he recognized the man's trademark wooden sandals and humongous bunch of gray hair.  
Naruto wasted no time or energy calling for the man this time, instead he brought together his hands in his favorite seals and watched the show as suddenly an old crone appeared behind the senin, just outside of striking distance. A detail he might have neglected apparently as the hermit didn't even seem to acknowledge her until she yelled "Pervert!" and tried striking him with a frying pan. For a second it seemed like the clone would actually hit him, but at the last few centimeters the old hermit finally noticed her. Just for a moment the clone thought it saw a look of surprise on his face, but before it could be sure it was already dispelled by a sandal to the groin.

"You know it's one thing to spy on women, but I never expected you to hit them" the young man said from the ground.  
"Like I said before kid", he said as he jumped down to his level, "unles you can fake a decent chakra signature, that trick won't work on me."  
"You can tell male from female chakra?" the boy asked in surprise.  
"I can tell yours from an old crone's." he answerred before muttering that his tits weren't saggy enough. Naruto pretended not to have heard that last bit.  
"So, how does it work?"  
"Well over time the skin's elasticity becomes worn down by gravity. This is also due to the process of cell reproduction being not entirely perfect. The body just can't continue to suppo-"  
"Not that you dirty old man! The teleportation jutsu!"  
"Oh. Well that does make sense. I was wondering why you wanted to know about saggy ti-"  
"Enough with the saggy tits already!"  
"Quite right, I think I spotted a lovely perky pair just a moment ago" the old pervert said as he straightened himself, trying to get a look over the wooden barrier that seperated them from Konoha's finest nudes this part of town.  
"Oh for the love of ... that's it. I'm moving this conversation elsewhere."  
"Ha" the old lecher grinned "and how are you" his tone suddenly changed as the scenery around him did "gonna do that?" Looking around he saw they had moved about 50 yards away from the bathhouse.  
"Ah, so this is the 'Advanced Kawarimi' I had heard about. Not bad kid" he smiled going over the technique in his head.  
"You knew about that?" the blond half asked in surprise.  
"Kid, I'm a sanin, there's not much that gets by me. Especially not in this village."  
"You provoked me into using it, didn't you?"  
"Hehehe, what can I say? Whenever I hear about someone putting a new spin on an old trick, I just gotta see what it is. And from what I heard, you've got a lotta spins."

Naruto could hardly believe this was happening. He got played like sucker by someone old enough to be his grandpa.  
"I thought you said you weren't interested about 'those 4 academy techniques' I knew?" slight frustration apparent in his voice.  
"I wasn't. You cought me in a bathhouse and a brothel, give me a break kid. I might be a legend, I'm certainly no saint."  
"Fair enough, I guess" the genin grudgingly admitted, as he imagined himself being bothered while slurping down a bowl of ramen. "So we're trading now?"  
"Hmmm" Jiraya put on a serious face, "I don't know. Summoning it pretty powerfull and unique. It's something I could only teach a few people. You got anything else that might be interesting to the man who has nearly seen it all?" the toad-sage continued playing him.  
Naruto wasn't falling for it however. He might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed a few months ago, but he had been grinding himself a lot lately.  
"Sure, plenty" he said like an overenthousiastic kid. "I'm just not sure you could actually learn any of it though" the youngster seemed to feign concern. "I seem to have a certain knack for the technique, you know? And a boatload of chakra to boot" he proclaimed while shining his fingernails.

The legendary hermit chuckled to himself. The kid was onto him and not sharing any freebies. He could let that last insult slide though. "A boatload eh? Well we'l just see about that. Why don't you try that last technique again."  
Naruto raised a quizical eyebrow at that, he wasn't sure what the old man wanted to prove with that, but he was curious to find out.  
"You're not going to try and dodge it, right?"  
"Pfsht, what would that prove? Now just go ahead and do it, unless you're scared of a demonstration of MY chakra" Jiraya taunted.  
"Like hell!" the blonde shouted as he put his hands in his favorite seal. A moment later a plume of smoke exploded next to him, but as it dissapeared the toad sage stayed standing in front of him, unflinching with a small grin on him. When the smoke was gone, two identical hermits stood opposed eachother in the clearing, one smiling, the other with a slight frown on him, trying to understand what just happened.

"I figured your technique would be based on a clone, but I had no idea your Henge would be that fast. You almost got me because of that" the pervert said as he walked around his double doing a casual inspection.  
"I had no idea you could make your chakra peak that fast" the clone answerred in return.  
"That's because I didn't have to gather any" the original pervert said. Seeing the incromprending frown on their faces, the sanin elaborated: "I just stopped surpressing it."  
Suddenly the frowns on their faces reversed direction after realizing what this meant. For the single instant that Naruto's technique tried to affect the Jiraya, the man had suddenly radiated a huge amount of chakra. His look of amazement slowly turned into a grin as he realized what this meant.  
"I think we can probably work something out."


End file.
